My husband and I work random shifts on random days and sometimes this means that our home is left empty throughout the day or night. As we have a cat and also tropical fish we like to ensure that there is always a light on at home during the evenings so that our home has the appearance of one with someone inside both to potential burglars and for our cat.

In the past I found that my cat would seem unsettled and a little grouchy if I came home during the night or in the morning and this was improved greatly when she had a lamp on in the lounge with her as she didn't have to squint when I opened the door to come home and turned the hall light on. This might seem like a small thing but coupled with the want to deter potential burglars from trying to force the door I decided to leave a lamp on during the evening hours to make it appear as if someone is home.

Mechanical timers are widely available of course for the purpose but I actually purchased this Masterplug TM24 one. The reason that I have these particular ones is that I was able to pick up 3 from Robert Dyas in a multipack for just £7.99. This is very reasonable and has allowed me to use one for the light on our tropical fish tank, one for a lamp in the living room and one for a lamp in our bedroom. These are available separately for about £5.00 each which is reasonable enough for effective it is but I do love a multibuy bargain!

This timer is quite simple to look at and use really. It is basically a large plug with a plug socket on the front bottom of it and then the actual timet part itself. There is also a sliding switch on the side too. The timer on this is a 24 hour one of course, as the name suggests, with numbers from 1 to 24 with black lines to represent each 15 minutes. The middle of the timer does not move and has an arrow on it so that you can move the outer part clockwise as needed to set it to the current time, then to choose the actual time that you want the timer to come on you find the corresponding times and then you press down the little black clips behind the time, the timer will then be active when it hits the beginning of the black section and when it reaches the end it will shut off again and turn off the appliance that is plugged in to it. The sliding part on the side of this timer is then slid in place to turn on the timer. You will want to plug this in to the wall, turn on the timer, turn on the lamp and turn on the plug socket that the timer is turned in to. Of course if you use your lamp without the timer then the lamp will need to be turned back on again to ensure that the timer can work successfully. There is a light to allow you to see that the timer is turned on also which is always good.

I found that to set this up I needed to do it rather than relying on my husband because he said that the black segments were too fiddly and small and so I ended up doing it with my more lady sized hands. This is simple and quick to set up and if I need to make any changes then I have no problems at all doing that. I would definitely rate this 5 out of 5 stars as it is simple to use, if a tiny bit fiddly for the larger handed person, and it works. The timer always turns on the appliance or lamp as needed at the required time and it always turns off too. I don't have any worries about this causing a problem while I am out of the house and I like knowing that my cat is not sitting at home in silence and darkness. This alone makes it worthwhile for me but we also use one with our fish tank to keep the light on for a set amount of hours and during a set time. This works very well for us and I have nothing but good things to say about this mechanical timer. I really like the peace of mind that comes from using this product as I like knowing that my home looks like it has someone in it when I am not there and that my fish have the light that they need.