I have two varieties. I use both of them. I love the sunrise/sunset feature and so do my plants. They seem to follow their natural rhythm of growth, flowering, and dormancy, even growing indoors under artificial lights.
The first is from
Menards. It's about $15. It's self-contained with a 3-prong single outlet on each side. It works great with one caveat. Sunrise/sunset programming sets up by selecting one of 3 USA zones, North, Central, or South. To match your particular location, you have to edit Sunrise or Sunset time for that day. Once you do that, it tracks your local time nicely. This would be my first pick.
The other is a Leviton VPT24-1PZ Vizia, recently discontinued. It was available at Home Depot. It is still available at
Amazon. It costs about $33. This one is not a standalone unit. You have to put it in a box or wire it into your house, add one or more outlets, and wire it up. It fits in a single gang switch box.The good thing about this is you can wire in more than one receptacle, giving you the ability to plug in multiple lights. For someone with a dedicated indoor grow room, this can be wired into your house wiring to control the outlets your lights are plugged into. The bad thing is that this should only be done by an electrician. There are safety issues and national, state, and local electrical codes that should probably be followed. This one is much easier to program but I don't recommend this for the average CP grower, unless you're an electrician.
There was a
third one but I was very dissatisfied with it and returned it after a week. It did not work, even after multiple contacts with their customer service department.
That's my two cents worth. Sorry if I got too involved and long-winded.
Good growing,
Mike