How do I use my timer?
Quick Answer
It depends on which system you have. Your accent lighting runs on an automatic photocell or astronomical timer that Lights Over Atlanta sets at installation, it handles dusk-to-dawn scheduling on its own, no input needed from you. Christmas light timers are different: they plug into a standard wall outlet and are fully customizable, so you can pick exactly when your display turns on and off each night.
Detailed Answer
Lights Over Atlanta uses two different timer setups depending on the system, and they are designed to work in very different ways.
For your accent lighting, we install an automatic timer that you should never need to touch.
Whenever possible, we use a photocell timer, which senses actual daylight and turns your lights on at dusk and off at dawn based on real conditions around your property. If your home has interference from nearby streetlights, neighbors’ security floods, or other light sources that would confuse a photocell, we use an astronomical timer instead, which calculates sunrise and sunset for your time zone and runs on that schedule. Both options are fully automatic, dusk-to-dawn by design, and require zero input from you. If your accent lighting is not coming on when it should, we would actually prefer that you not try to adjust the timer yourself, give us a call at (470) 870-0606 and we will diagnose it for you.
Christmas light timers are a completely different setup. Holiday timers are simpler and much more customizable, because most homeowners do not want their Christmas display glowing all night the way their accent lighting does. These timers plug into a standard wall outlet and use push-button controls to set both the on time and the off time, so you can have your lights come on around dusk and shut off at, say, 11 PM or midnight, whatever fits your household. If your area experiences a power outage, you may need to reset the clock so the schedule stays synced with the actual time of day. For step-by-step instructions, download our Christmas timer instruction guide.
If you are ever unsure which timer you have, or it is not behaving the way you expect, contact us at (470) 870-0606, we are happy to help.