These work great! it is a little intense setting it up the first couple of times but they usually work very well. i have 3 in my current home and they operate my outside lighting, which by the way are all cfl's. the power outage reset is a drawback, but think of it as an oportunity to stay trained on how to set it up. if it is not working correctly, remember to reset it and a very important step is rotating the dial ALL the way around.
Set-up: 1) push the reset lever to the right and hold it to a count of 5 and release. 2) Set the time: determine if the white is before lunch and black is after lunch, the colors change at 12 noon or midnight, whatever. Spin the dial at least 360 degrees, do not push in while turning, stop at the current time. push in and release, current time is now set. 3) ON Time: Next turn the knob 360 degrees+ stopping at the "ON" time, push in on knob. Look at the light, is it on? If yes move on, if not, start over. 4) Set OFF time: Turn knob at least 360 degrees stopping at the time you want the light to go off, push in on knob. Look at light, is it OFF. Good Job! 5) Not done yet, turn the knob at least 360 degrees, where you end is unimportant. All done. Remember, rotate knob 360 degrees each time, only push knob in to set times, current time, "ON" time and "OFF" time. that should do it. i love them because they fit in a standard wall plate. Normally outside lights are in 2, 3, or 4 gang boxes and replacing all the switches and wall plate with the deorator unit so you can use the new type timer is more than i want to invest.