Black Series On/Off in a hot garage

Switches General Discussion
#1

Hello,

I see in the spec sheet for the LZW30 that the operating temperature is listed as:

Operating Temperature: 32-104 °F (0-40 °C)

What happens if it becomes hotter?

I’m thinking of mounting several in my garage (simple place to run several wires together for new exterior lighting that I am installing), and then using home automation to give me distributed control from other places of the house.

Now, I live in Central TX, our summers are hot. My garage easily crosses 104F, with 110F not being out of the picture in peak summer. We don’t go much below 32F, (but the recent winter storms say a different story - i’m less worried about the cold)

Will the switches burn out / shorten their life at this sort of high temperature? Should I instead plan to mount them somewhere else?

Thanks!

#2

Bump? Anyone?

@Brianna_Inovelli : I would be very thankful for some product info here.

edit: changing tag to be the right @ mention

#3

I don’t think you’ll get too much official guidance on installing outside of the speced temperature range. The reality is that if your switch is on an interior garage wall, the temperature in the gang box is much closer to temperate. Similarly, the garage itself is unlikely to reach the extremes outside, but that’s dependent on how often you leave the garage door open and other factors like insulation. During our recent trip to below zero in North Texas, my garage only got down to 33°.

#4

The reality is that if your switch is on an interior garage wall, the temperature in the gang box is much closer to temperate. Similarly, the garage itself is unlikely to reach the extremes outside, but that’s dependent on how often you leave the garage door open and other factors like insulation.

Thank you! This is very good feedback. My original install point was going to end up on an exterior wall, but moving it a bit to an internal shared wall, is a great idea (and not a big change to the plan). I will make that change. It should allow it to be less variable than the outside wall.

My garage isn’t all that well insulated. My IR thermometer thingy showed it below 30F at the wall surface at eye level, at the coldest phase. I probably need to fix the insulation too, but that’s a different project.

Thanks!

#5

Yeah, apologies on not responding. It’s hard to keep up sometimes.

Officially yes, as @fatherdoctor mentioned, we cannot go outside the specs as it will go against what UL has tested for :frowning: