Timer Relays and How They Work

Yes they are called plug in timers with fully progarammable twenty four hour setting some even allow for split timing of several items. Any hardware/electrical store Tandy/walmart?

There are numerous "repeat cycle" timers for daily periods or several times a day. Most operate on 120 VAC but you should be able find units that use 12 Volt (AC or DC) without using a converter. Try Newark, Allied or other electronic suppliers.

Rockwell Automation / Allen-Bradley, Fuji, and Omron make scads of different "Timers, Timing Relays, On - Delay, Multifunction, Solid-State Timers, 1/16 DIN Super Timers, et." These cost 50 to over 100 bucks, but MCM (www.mcmelectronics.com/) recently had some Omron timers (H3CR series) at about 1/3 list price. Most of these units mount in plug in bases like radio or TV tubes from the 1950's, but some have screw terminals. Go to any of their web sites for specifications. Some of these have delay times switcheable from seconds to minutes to hours to days. Their input and output voltage ratings range from 12V AC/DC to 240 VAC. Read the spec sheets.