I have a shed in my backyard that I ran electrical service to (it's where I keep my freezer).
I am in the process of installing outdoor lights on it.

There will be a light over the door and a spotlight to illuminate the rest of my yard.
I want to control these light separately from the house (less than 100 ft away).

Would a Lutron Maestro setup work?
They have an RF and an IR line of wireless switches...I would use the RF multi location switch and a Pico wireless controller.
I think the setup would run me ~$145.

Looks like the guaranteed range is only 30 ft.

Back to the drawing board...

maybe z-wave, I have it setup in my house, but not sure what the max range is.

might be 50 feet.

X10 is an old protocol, but uses the wire instead of wireless.  If you're on the same 1/2 of the circuit, it should work with no issues.


If you're on a different phase you may have to get something to jump the signal from side to side.  They work, but not always.  Sometimes it's hit or miss on the signal getting through.





There are a lot of options here:  http://www.smarthome.com

 

The shed is on it's own sub-panel.

I guess I could try INSTEON...but I would need an INSTEON hub.
Of course, I could use this for other stuff in the future.

The thing I like about the Lutron system is that it has a simple light switch style remote control that I could mount on the wall to control the lights in the shed.

I believe x-10 works through a subpanel.  



Wifi would also work, if you got a wifi light switch, and a longer range wifi antenna (you might already have wifi in your shed depending on where the antenna is.



 

I would assume that you ran conduit underground to the shed?

Can you pull another cable to the shed?

I think everyone saying X-10 is probably spot on, but WiFi could go 100 ft with a directional antennae, especially since you don't need it to be fast. The X-10 setup is probably cheaper.  

You DO NOT have to have an Insteon hub at all. You can link two switches or a switch and remote together without a hub.

A hub is required only if you want to add programmatic control of your system. Timers, iPhone control, web control, time of day based reactions, etc. A hub is not required to simply have a remote switch in the house that operates a circuit in your shed.

I have Insteon stuff all over my house an love it. You can get it at Smarthome.com like another user posted.

ETA - Discuss the wireless range with Smarthome if you decide to get a wireless remote to make sure it will reach. If it was me, I would probably install a wired Insteon switch in the house to avoid poor wireless communication and having to deal with batteries. Since Insteon communicates via the common wire as well as wirelessly, it can communicate across circuits in your home. No need to run a wire from the switch in the house to the shed.

iif you have wifi out in the shed, you could use a wemo switch and a smart phone for the switch.
if you put z-wave in your house, you can program any light in the house that is z-wave to also turn on the wemo switches in the shed.