Best Green Living

The UPM Programmable Digital Timer can be used for a variety of things, as long as they have to do with programming an appliance to turn on and off when ever you wish.  It can handle 15A (1800 W) of current so you can use it for anything that you can plug into a standard household outlet.

Typical uses include turning lights on and off while you are away to give you house a lived in look.  Setting up heaters, etc to operate automatically to save energy.  Or, my intended use, to recharge my Vectrix scooter during specific off peak hours in order to save a little money.

The UPM digital timer comes in the ever friendly plastic blister pack.

We love the blister pack

It comes with a fold out manual which gives instructions in English and French.  The buttons are easy to operate.  You can manually turn your device on and off, set a countdown timer to either turn a device on or off after a specific amount of time, run a program that can include up to 20 ON/OFF steps, or have a device turn on and off at random intervals (1 to 2 hour cycle)

The display is a little small:

Note the small icon in the left

The numbers are easily readable, but there are some parts that are harder to see.  The PM indication and the small sun in the above picture may require some use of a magnifier.

The programming is easily done and very flexable.  You can set the day or days of the week to run your particular ON/OFF cycle.  The choices are:

• Each individual day
• Monday through Sunday
• Monday through Friday
• Monday through Saturday
• Saturday and Sunday

So you can easily set your lamp or appliance to operate any time you desire.  It has two small watch batteries to maintain the program when unplugged.  There is also a master disable option to stop all program operations.

My programming needs will be simple.  I need my recharge cycle to occur between the hours of Midnight and 7AM every day.  I only needed one of the program steps to accomplish this.  I chose this particular timer for its current rating of 15A, since my Vectrix draws over 13 amps while charging.  So far it has worked perfectly.  I am gathering charging data and energy usage for my Vectrix review coming soon.