I notice that some light switches don't work and I had an electrician out but all the wiring seems to go into a box in the attic and the electrician seemed reluctant to make some of the changes that I wanted him to make. He did say that the switches were outdated and therefore hard to find. The house was built in the 50's and the wall switches are of a type that I have never seen before. What are the benefits/drawbacks to this type of wiring and are there special electricians that work with this type of wiring? If so, how do I determine if they have the type of experience needed? Thanks in advance.

The system you have is probably a GE Touch Plate system, where all the switches are low voltage controlling relays in a cabinet next to your panelboard. The relays then switch the line voltage wiring that goes out to each light fixture.

Parts for these systems are still available:

Low Voltage Switch Plate, Low Voltage Lighting System Plates & Parts

Since I have been in the trade over 30 years I have come across several homes with these systems. You may have a younger electrician with not similar experience.

Either your electrician can do some research and get up to speed, or find one with more experience in the trade.

Thanks, one more thing, why were these systems used? Why are they not used today? Should I think of converting?

I believe they were used to give flexibility to having switches anywhere without the cost of running line voltage cables.

Plus it was "Modern" in the late 50's to use something like this system.

As usual, new concepts may have been "cool", but not always practical.

To convert over to a traditional system would be too costly, in my opinion. Each switch location would need 120 volt wiring install from switches back to the relay box.

I've worked on a few myself, a little interesting, You likely can add a light to the circuit if on the same switch. New lighting would require additional parts.
There are modern companies doing this, like:
Lighting Control and Automation Systems by LiteTouch
From what I saw, they use 5 conductors. I would take a look and see how many conductors are at each switch location to help determine what you could use, if you wanted to upgrade.
As Technology increased, the number of conductors needed were decreasing, seems they are on the rise again.
Example, Many old phones systems used 8 conductor phone jacks, then 6, then 4, then, 2, and now with IP phones, they are back up to eight?
Lighting could be similar.

2 other thoughts:
1)You can also run electrical wiring from the Breaker Panel and use Normal? Lights and switches.
2) I always felt the Low Voltage systems should be done in conduit bac to the panel to allow High voltage switching, shoul the system become obsolete or just so expensive.
The Company who make a system with the least low voltage control wires would get more of the retrofits.

Hi, not sure I understand that last sentence. "the company who...". Can you explain? Thanks for the link to the website, I will look into it. Can any electrician understand that website and do work on my wiring or do I need someone special? There is a remodel that was done in the basement and the ceiling lites (cans) seem to go to the main breaker box so I think they are not low voltage. Is low voltage more economical to use than regular voltage? I'm trying to understand the thinking of the builder when this house was built. It is not the usual in this area, I live in a suburb of Chicago. Thanks for you help.

Say your low voltage switches use 3 conductors:
http://www.kyledesigns.com/c=mE6Hh0Q...ay-Switch.html
1 lead is common 24 volts, and the other 2 leads are 1 for switching on, the other for off.
To upgrade or change to something that uses 4 conductors won't work as you only have 3.
So, the company that can do low voltage control with the least amount of wires will have more possibilities of working with more existing systems.
The least amount of wires is 2, and even with only 2 conductors, you can switch and control many things.

Yes, any decent electrician should be able to figure this out, even thou they have not seen it before.

Electricians, well at least service electricians, see new, and old but never seen before, products every day.

I say service electricians, not to offend construction electrician in any way, just that they work with the same products everyday. Every job they get I am sure they see something new on the market, once they install it once, they got it figured out.

But construction electricians do not get the chance to see old installations, and run into stuff like this.

A Touchplate system is nothing more than a crap load of doorbell buttons everywhere, each with a small low voltage line, all going back to the control box. Each button operates a relay, or contactor, that switches a light or lights. Real simple, parts look weird, but very simple concept.

If you get an electrician that cannot figure it out in one hour, hire another. Does not hurt to ask if they already know the system. Parts can be purchased at the website I provided, and I am sure others.

Thanks. Is there an energy savings advantage to low voltage?

No, but copper savings perhaps. Small wire doing the switching rather than heavy wire doing line voltage switching may be cheaper. But line voltage switching is local, and longer but smaller wire is needed, then the cost of the control cabinet, so I am thinking it may be a wash ore possibly cost more.


With the price of copper nowadays, I wonder why systems like this are not more popular. Perhaps they are and I am not aware of it. I did a lot of residential work early in my trade, now I do most heavy commercial and industrail, so I don't get the chance to be involved much with residential work any more.

The savings may be closer to Zero, You still have to run high voltage wiring from the Panel to the lights, the short run for a switch is small.
If you want to swith many thing from several locations, it is probably good.
What I do for Catarans(a 3 hulled sail boat is use a Latching relay. Now all I have to do is run 2 conductor cable to wherever I want to switch from, and just have a pushbutton. Momentarily pressing at any of several locations, whill change from on to off, doesn't matter where, three way switching requires a 3rd conductor or more and 4 way switches if more than 2 locations.

The savings may be closer to Zero, You still have to run high voltage wiring from the Panel to the lights, the short run for a switch is small.
If you want to switch many thing from several locations, it is probably good.
What I do for Catarans(a 3 hulled sail boat is use a Latching relay. Now all I have to do is run 2 conductor cable to wherever I want to switch from, and just have a pushbutton. Momentarily pressing at any of several locations, whill change from on to off, doesn't matter where, three way switching requires a 3rd conductor or more and 4 way switches if more than 2 locations.

The savings may be closer to Zero, You still have to run high voltage wiring from the Panel to the lights, the short run for a switch is small.
If you want to switch many things from several locations, it is probably good.
What I do for Catamarans(a 3 hulled sail boat) is use a Latching relay. Now all I have to do is run 2 conductor cable to wherever I want to switch from, and just have a pushbutton. Momentarily pressing at any of several locations, will change from on to off, and off to on, doesn't matter where, three way switching requires a 3rd conductor or more and 4 way switches if more than 2 locations.

It's a "cool" system, unfortunately not common enough for many electricians to be familiar with. It's more of a low voltage control issue rather than a typical line voltage situation. Many contractors who deal with HVAC systems as well as typical electrical systems should have no problem diagnosing and repairing this type of system.