What's really annoying about mandating "energy saving" devices like that is
that for those of us that conscientiously turn off lights when leaving a
room, we wind up with higher electric bills as our lights are always on five
minutes longer than necessary , not to mention the $30 to $50 for the switch





"Jeff Wisnia" wrote in message
. ..

The hallway bathrooms in the small office building we've rented in for
many years use motion detectors to turn on the overhead flourescents when
someone enters, and they stay on for about 5 minutes after there's no
longer anyone moving around in them. (DAMHIKT, but it involved an
interesting magazine article which absorbed my attention for over 5
minutes. G)

Those motion detectors seem like a good idea to me because they keep from
wasting electricity by keeping the bathroom lights off for what's probably
over 95% of the time the building's occupied. Unless maybe the costs of
having to replace the flourescent bulbs more frequently because of that
switching on and off, will eat up the savings, but that's not the point of
this post....

SWMBO and I were visiting my cousin in San Jose, California last week.
She'd just had a new home built for her. My wife used one of the bathrooms
and was startled when the lights went off before she was through with her
business.

My cousin explained that all the bathrooms' lights were turned on by
motion detectors when someone entered them, and there was a means provided
to keep them on for a longer time than the few minutes my wife
experienced.

She told me the electrician who'd wired the place for her said the motion
detectors were required by code on new construction there, but she hadn't
been given a reason why.

My inquiring mind wants to know if that's really a code requirement, and
if so, what's the underlying reason. All I can think of is some whacky
safety issue to avoid someone entering a dark bathroom from stumbling and
ending up with their head stuck in the toilet because they couldn't find
the light switch. G

So, what is it? (Or was her electrician maybe off base?)

Thanks guys,

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
The speed of light is 1.98*10^14 fathoms per fortnight.