Barn 4 at Orange Empire is evolving from a car/engine storage building into a display building. Right now the 120V AC (one 240V) lighting in three cars have to be turned on and off manually (which is a pain). Displays in the aisles, including possibly video and movement, are envisioned, and will need power. Rewiring the building so one switch turns everything on would be a major effort and probably impossible because where displays will be is unknown.

So I am researching having a radio remote by the entry door that turns everything on and off (throws radio controlled relays). The marketplace has much to offer for home automation but for our larger scale application I'm not finding much. Our rectangular barn is about 300 feet on the diagonal and there are several big metal objects in it.

Here is an organization of manufacturers of these types of devices:
http://www.z-wavealliance.org/modules/iaCM-MCL/

So I'm looking for help, especially success stories.

Thanks much in advance.

If the display area is on one distribution panel, you might consider using one of the relatively inexpensive home security timer and switch units that use the wiring as the signal carrier. These are available for relatively large numbers of switched functions, with a considerable variety of plug in power control remote devices for various types of functions being available. They generally have auxiliary switch panels that can be used to over-ride automatic timing or operate individual circuits as needed.

PC

I've forwarded this to my local professional electronics/electrical installation expert, also a closet railfan. Let's see if he answers for us.

PCook, please let me explain more. The power comes into the building at one point (more than one breaker box but all in the same place). The displays will be on several circuits with other uses on the circuits, like wall plugs, work lights, power tools, etc. That's why this a difficult problem requiring a non-conventional solution. During the week docents come and go with groups randomly. On weekends and other operating days the building is open for about eight hours. Thus there is no regular pattern for a timer.

Thanks Alexander. If he needs more explanation please use the email option of this board.

Marty, most of the systems I have seen that use the wires as signal carriers will function on any group of circuits supplied through one distribution. Most of them were designed to operate with a clock/timer, but you don't necessarily have to put any settings on the timer if you do not want to use it that way. You just need to set up the individual controlled functions to communicate with the plug in receivers, that usually just requires setting an alphanumeric code on a pair of dials on the master unit to match the receiver. They have plug in manual switch panels that can be connected at any outlets in the circuit distribution and can be used to turn on any of the controlled device in the system. You can run as many switch panels as you want, located anywhere they can reach an outlet. They also generally have an "all circuits" switch that will turn on everything in the system at the same time, this is usually used for local security. The best thing about them is that the control unit, switch panels, and individual circuit control devices are relatively inexpensive, and they seem to have a very good range using the wiring for communication, something you do not always have with radio devices. I had one of these systems on a building and it would reliably turn on devices 250 feet away. Various electrical equipment suppliers have made them.

PC

PCook, I'd like to communicate with you off-line. Please use the email function at the end of my post above. Thanks.