I was reading an article about how the Lausanne police is giving away randomised light timers as part of their campaign for house security.
A more general online reading says there are light timers which can be set to randomly turn on light in a specified range.
Anyone has any idea where to buy those in Switzerland?

Hornbach for one.

Thanks!!!

Thanks for the timely reminder! I wasn't aware the police were giving these away, but there's been too many break-ins lately, even when the occupant is away for 3-4 hours!

That looks exactly like one that I have and it's an automatic timer switch which works well, but does not have a random function. It won't randomly switch your lights on and off at varying times, which is the objective for theft deterrence, although you can program different (regular) times for each day of the week if you want.

This is what you need, but unfortunately this one's for Euro plugs, not Swiss. I can't find Swiss equivalents online right now but ask around, using the terms "Zeitschaltuhr" and "wahllos" or "willkürlich" (in German).

This store (ELV) talks on its website about its range of timers and mentions random (zufällig -- yet another synonym!) timers -- maybe you can find what you want there.

Is the random function really useful? For e.g., I have a routine- very likely, quite a many lights in the flat would be on from a certain hour onwards and would be off after a certain time. If it switches on at, say, 3 a.m., wouldn't that look weird?

The idea is that you set a range for the randomness (this is Switzerland, even chaos is ordered!). For example, the lights come on randomly any time between 17:00 and 18:00 (and different times in different rooms, too), and off any time between 22:00 and 22:45.

Obviously the lack of a fixed routine is meant to dissuade anyone watching your house from breaking in. But they'd have to be fairly dedicated burglars, to be casing your place for a few days. If your house is worth that sort of attention, you've probably got a sophisticated security system in place already.

Yes it does. And it's for Swiss sockets and plugs.

From the datasheet:

The timer will turn itself on and off in random intervals of between 10 and 45 minutes.

OK, sounds good! It's not the same as mine, then. And it's at a good price, too.

And if they were that dedicated they'd notice that you weren't there in any case.

The idea (I believe) is you plug lamps into them so one lamp for each timer and not all the lamps for one timer.

Then light would turn on and off at different times.

I wouldn't worry about lights coming on and off at night. That's quite usual if you live in a house with small kids.

The idea is that Swiss people go to sleep and wake up at exact times and have clockwork rhythms.

By having a random light, you show that you are a poor, non-integrated foreigner and are therefore unlikely to have money or be worth the trouble of robbing.

There are also flickering LED lights, meant to simulate a TV - although with a timing option, it doesn't appear to be random.

(sorry - another Landi product plug, although probably available elsewhere)

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how long do you need to operate it until the reduced electricity costs pay for itself (over using a real tv)?

It's meant as a viable and more interesting alternative to SwissTV channels.

Thank you, 22 yards!

None of that sort. In the past 4 months, there's been two break-ins (one in the afternoon; another in the early hours) in the same building. Both studios. I can't understand the criminal rationale behind that unless they mistook those for the larger apartments.

I always thought that the rolling shutters should offer some protection- at least for the balcony and all windows.

Here's Lausanne Police's booklet: http://www.lausanne.ch/lausanne-offi...22_2014_fr.pdf

Silly Phil.... absolutely everyone knows for a fact that all foreigners have an annual income of over well chf 120k per annum (or whatever the "can I manage on x?" salary query is this month), so we're well worth burgling!

Thanks, btu I can't see the link...? Maybe if everything else fails one with a Euro plug can be used with an adapter