Home Repair forum - Motion Sensing Light Experiences & Recommendations.

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Motion Sensing Light Experiences & Recommendations.

mike

2008-02-28, 1:25 pm

I recently installed a $20 motion sensing flood light that advertised
a 70 foot sensitivity range. It turned out to be more like 20 feet
(at best). I'm beginning to suspect that you take the advertised
range, multiply it by the price and divide by 100 to get the actual
range.

If anyone has good experiences with motion sensing flood lights, how
much did they cost and what brand were they?

Thanks.

JoeSpareBedroom

2008-02-28, 5:27 pm

"mike" <yellowbirddog@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:b2cc86bb-d289-4d9b-8681-4e9af64b9278@s8g2000prg.googlegroups.com...
>I recently installed a $20 motion sensing flood light that advertised
> a 70 foot sensitivity range. It turned out to be more like 20 feet
> (at best). I'm beginning to suspect that you take the advertised
> range, multiply it by the price and divide by 100 to get the actual
> range.

>
> If anyone has good experiences with motion sensing flood lights, how
> much did they cost and what brand were they?
>
> Thanks.

Do you want it to go on when people just walk by the house, but are still on
the public sidewalk or in the street? If yes, otherwise innocent people out
for a nice walk at night will want to cause you bodily harm.

And, don't aim the damned light so it blinds people in the street. The
person you blind may be a cop who arrives to help you one night.

Sorry I can't help with brand names & quality.

Ken

2008-02-28, 5:27 pm

mike wrote:
> I recently installed a $20 motion sensing flood light that advertised
> a 70 foot sensitivity range. It turned out to be more like 20 feet
> (at best). I'm beginning to suspect that you take the advertised
> range, multiply it by the price and divide by 100 to get the actual
> range.

>
> If anyone has good experiences with motion sensing flood lights, how
> much did they cost and what brand were they?
>
> Thanks.

Many such sensors have an adjustment. Does yours have one?

mike

2008-02-28, 5:27 pm

On Feb 28, 11:51=A0am, Ken <k...@invalid.com> wrote:
> mike wrote:
>
>
>
> =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 Many such sensors have an adjustment. =A0Does yours have o=
ne?

Yup, I have it at maximum sensitivity. At minimum sensitivity, you
have to get within inches of the sensor. It's a pathetic joke.

To the other responder, I have plenty of area to cover with no danger
of blinding or annoying anyone.

Joseph Meehan

2008-02-28, 5:27 pm

Wait until summer. They tend to be less sensitive when cold. I do have
one neighbor who has lights on their garage that will pick me up early in
the morning below freezing as I jog past early in the morning on the
opposite side of the street and his garage is at least 40 or 50 feet from
the street. My guess is the range they state are under ideal conditions.

--
Joseph Meehan

Dia 's Muire duit

"mike" <yellowbirddog@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:b2cc86bb-d289-4d9b-8681-4e9af64b9278@s8g2000prg.googlegroups.com...
> I recently installed a $20 motion sensing flood light that advertised
> a 70 foot sensitivity range. It turned out to be more like 20 feet
> (at best). I'm beginning to suspect that you take the advertised
> range, multiply it by the price and divide by 100 to get the actual
> range.

>
> If anyone has good experiences with motion sensing flood lights, how
> much did they cost and what brand were they?
>
> Thanks.

DGDevin

2008-02-28, 5:27 pm

"mike" <yellowbirddog@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:b2cc86bb-d289-4d9b-8681-4e9af64b9278@s8g2000prg.googlegroups.com...

>I recently installed a $20 motion sensing flood light that advertised
> a 70 foot sensitivity range. It turned out to be more like 20 feet
> (at best). I'm beginning to suspect that you take the advertised
> range, multiply it by the price and divide by 100 to get the actual
> range.

>
> If anyone has good experiences with motion sensing flood lights, how
> much did they cost and what brand were they?
>
> Thanks.

We have some Zenith motion sensor lights our electrician recommended and I
had no trouble getting them to turn on if someone walked past on the
sidewalk perhaps forty feet away, so I turned down the sensitivity so
someone has to actually come up the driveway a bit to turn them on. There
is a label on these units that reads DESA Specialty Products, perhaps that
is the actual mfg./importer. They've stood up well, we had them installed
so units on different sides of the house come on if any one unit is
activated, and we can manually turn them on from inside. We've used them
with regular floodlamps and CFL floodlamps, the CFLs seem to take a little
time to reach full brightness but if you're going to set the units to stay
on for 20 minutes when they're activated the CFLs certainly burn less
electricity. I like the fact that they light up the driveway and front of
the garage when we come home at night, makes it harder to trip over the damn
cat. They retail for twenty bucks.

We also put in an Intermatic digital timer for the porch light recently,
very slick unit which takes the place of one switch on a multi-switch panel.
It self-adjusts for daylight savings time and dusk based on the date. So if
we go away for the weekend or whatever the porch light comes on by itself
and turns off again in the morning, one less thing to worry about.

ransley

2008-02-28, 5:27 pm

On Feb 28, 12:23=A0pm, mike <yellowbird...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> I recently installed a $20 motion sensing flood light that advertised
> a 70 foot sensitivity range. =A0It turned out to be more like 20 feet
> (at best). =A0I'm beginning to suspect that you take the advertised
> range, multiply it by the price and divide by 100 to get the actual
> range. =A0

>
> If anyone has good experiences with motion sensing flood lights, how
> much did they cost and what brand were they?
>
> Thanks.

It might be defective, I have bought many and never had that issue.

gfretwell@aol.com

2008-02-29, 3:25 am

On Thu, 28 Feb 2008 10:23:39 -0800 (PST), mike
<yellowbirddog@hotmail.com> wrote:

>I recently installed a $20 motion sensing flood light that advertised
>a 70 foot sensitivity range. It turned out to be more like 20 feet
>(at best). I'm beginning to suspect that you take the advertised
>range, multiply it by the price and divide by 100 to get the actual
>range.

>
>If anyone has good experiences with motion sensing flood lights, how
>much did they cost and what brand were they?
>
>Thanks.

I have about 20 installed insirde and outside my house. I have mostly
the Heath/Zenith Home Depot kind but I also have some Reagent from
Lowes that I don't like as well (much less sensitive). I also have a
couple no name Kmart sensors that won't die.
Outside in the sun these things only last a year or two in direct suyn
(south exposure), in the shade they last a lot longer. In the house
and garage they seem to last forever. Loss of sensitivity is the first
thing that shows up when they get "sunburned".
I also have some of the "device" type occupancy sensors inside and
they have never failed.
As soon as you get over the idea that these are only for "Stalag 17"
style spotlights and that you can use them for normal lighting you can
end up with a lot of them. Except for task lighting I seldom ever
touch a light switch and the lights follow me wherever I go.
The difference betweem "motion sensor" and "occupancy sensor" is the
occupancy sensor restarts the clock whenever it sees motion. The
motion sensor will time out based on the first motion and need to be
retriggered.
BTW if the temp is in the high 90s you can do the hokey pokey right in
front of one and they won't pop.

Bob M.

2008-02-29, 3:25 am

"Joseph Meehan" <sligoNoSPAMjoe@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:47c72bae$0$6944$4c368faf@roadrunner.com...
> Wait until summer. They tend to be less sensitive when cold. I do
> have

They're -more- sensitive when it's cold outside. Greater difference between
body temp/engine temp & ambient air temp.

In the summer, when it's 90 outside, you can walk right up to it & it
probably won't see you until you're 5 feet away.

Bob M.

2008-02-29, 3:25 am

Could be the way you have them mounted. All motion sensors are almost
completely blind when it comes to motion headed directly toward the sensor.
However, it'll spot you in a New Yawk second if the motion is -across- it's
field of view.

Joseph Meehan

2008-02-29, 9:25 am

One would think that should be the case, but at least for some the
opposite is true. Of course if you can keep the sensor warm, then it might
be the other way around. Also in winter the likely target (a human) may
well be covered with layers of insulating clothing so they may in fact be
far colder than they would appear in summer and even show less difference
from the background than they would in the summer.

--
Joseph Meehan

Dia 's Muire duit

"Bob M." <no@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:hLidndrFwbFGG1ranZ2dnUVZ_vShnZ2d@bresnan.com...
> "Joseph Meehan" <sligoNoSPAMjoe@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:47c72bae$0$6944$4c368faf@roadrunner.com...
>
> They're -more- sensitive when it's cold outside. Greater difference
> between body temp/engine temp & ambient air temp.
>
> In the summer, when it's 90 outside, you can walk right up to it & it
> probably won't see you until you're 5 feet away.

2008-02-29, 9:25 am

> BTW if the temp is in the high 90s you can do the hokey pokey right in
> front of one and they won't pop.

Mine work fine above 100 degrees. Maybe they don't like the hokey
pokey??????

cm in Arizona

gfretwell@aol.com

2008-02-29, 1:25 pm

On Fri, 29 Feb 2008 13:13:22 GMT, "CM" <Kayakaz@worldnet.att.net>
wrote:

>
>Mine work fine above 100 degrees. Maybe they don't like the hokey
>pokey??????
>
>cm in Arizona
>

Above 100 degrees you are a cold spot moving in front of the filter.

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