Socket-Rocket Screw-in Lamp Module (LM15A)

I rent where I live...I have used several of these over the years and have been happy with them. A year ago I put one in the outside light 'fixtures' front and back of the house. They worked flawlessly with the PIR X10 motion detectors. During a battery change (of the Motion detector) I decided to program for a much longer on time than I had ever used. I noticed one of the lamps was staying on all night even after it should have turned off. The 'hand held button control' always manually turned it off fine. I even tried more Motion detectors and put them in different places and still had the same problem. I thought it was a signal strength problem.I was using a 'special' 100W Halogen bulb that puts out more 'visible light for a camera I use' than a regular light bulb. Because I had programmed a longer 'on time of 30m' the SocketRocket had time to get much hotter as the fixture was enclosed with glass panels with no air flow and that was causing the malfunction as heat built up.I thought about drilling some air holes in the bottom of the fixture but then noticed one of the fixture panels (facing the house) was NOT glass but shiny thin metal. I was able to slip out this panel which can't be seen from the front and had an open back and all the air circulation I could ever want. That fixed my problem!They work fine now even at the longer on time. YES, I will need to blow out the bugs from time to time but these are only on during motion and I can use a computer can of compressed air for that. I could (but probably won't) just cover the open panel with a piece of old window screen cut to size.My heavy duty bulb is a Sylvania A19 100W Halogen (normal screw in base) and it's about 3 years old and rated at 3,000 hours of on time. I purchased a couple of extra Socket Rockets to have in case the bulb finally (if ever) blows it might take out the Socket Rocket. (It's never happened to me but I have lost 'indoor X10 lamp modules' when a standard tungsten bulb would blow.The down side of the Socket Rocket is I can't flip the light switch on and off and on and have the light come on. If you need that put a push button X10 control next to the door switch or just let it activate with motion. When I go out or someone approaches the door the light comes on.My fixtures are now running cool as a cucumber. Don't know why people think cucumber are cool, on the farm they were ambient temperature.

I've been using a couple of these screw-in X10 sockets around the home for several years now. Because X-10 modules are becoming scarce, I recently bought a spare through Amazon in case one of my others fails.If you have an X-10 controller, this socket is easy to install and set up. Just unscrew the light bulb, screw the socket into the fixture, then screw the bulb into the socket. Turn on the power if necessary, then press the X-10 control button you want to control the lamp with. To change the control button assignment, unscrew the socket or turn off the power momentarily, then put it back and repeat the process.Don't worry if there's a power failure. If you don't "retrain" the socket within 30 seconds of the power coming on, it will simply revert back to the last control button you assigned to it.It does have a few minor drawbacks: First, it's not a dimming controller. It will respond to the All Lights On command, but not to brighten or dim commands.Second, even though it's not a dimming controller, it's nevertheless not supposed to be used with fluorescent bulbs. However, I've found that some CFL bulbs will work fine, although some won't. There's no way to know in advance. If you want to try a CFL, I recommend you train the socket with an incandescent bulb first and make sure it's working OK with the incandescent bulb. Then unscrew the incandescent bulb, screw in the CFL, and test it. If it works, you should be fine; otherwise, unscrew the CFL immediately to avoid possible damage.Finally, the socket doesn't have local control. Once installed, you can only control the lamp with your X-10 controller.If the above are problems for you, you should consider an X-10 wall switch, lamp, or appliance module instead. But this is a good choice if you want to use the X-10 system to control a ceiling or outdoor lamp that you can leave switched on. I actually removed the pull-chain switch from one ceiling lamp, and just use this socket and my X-10 controller instead.

So much easier to install then a lightswitch module - just screw it in.Programming is equally easy - when power is first applied, you have 30 seconds to send any ON code three times in a row and it will automatically learn that code. A previous review commented that you need another device to program it, which is true, but that can be the very device you are going to use to control this so should not be an issue.Another huge plus is that this adapter uses less then 0.1W while in the off state. Some X-10 adapters can pull a full watt while just sitting there off waiting for a command. These watts can add up every hour of every day wasting power.Note that this is just X-10 and X-10 is not perfect. Sometimes noise on your power lines can interfere with the signals. But this is a problem of all X-10 products. If you understand the limitations, X-10 can be a great option becuase there a so many products available and they are so cheap compared to more advanced systemss.