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Tony Hwang Tony Hwang is offline
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Default outside motion detection lights

wrote:
On Mon, 05 Jan 2015 21:57:39 -0700, Tony Hwang wrote:



I didn't turn the breaker off because it is hard wired, but I did put
black electrical tape over the sensor and that didn't turn it off

Hi,
You mean there is no breaker to remove the power from the unit?
You have to remove power and wait few seconds, then apply power
again to initialize the unit.


If there's no breaker, the OP better call the fire dept. BEFORE the
fire starts.

Of course we all know there has to be one somewhere on that circuit.

I NEVER installed a motion detector without a switch on the wall.
Sometimes I wanted to shut it off.

Actually, I got rid of my last motion light a year ago. I have never
found any of them to work flawlessly, and many are just a constant
problem. I had one on my barn, because at night the space between the
garage and the barn was dark, and has steps, which I tripped on far too
many times. The motion light was supposed to light up before I got to
the steps. Well, it did not always light, no matter how I adjusted it.

I just put another light on the side of tha garage, aimed down that
walkway by the steps. Put an exterior switch on the outside front of
the garage, which I just flip on now when I go there. Problem solved!

That stupid motion light would constantly go on and off, from damn near
everything. Wind moving tree branches, falling rain or snow, a wild
rabbit, one of my barn cats, my livestock getting nearby, and more....
Yet, many times when I walked there and WANTED it to turn on, it didn't.
And that was the 3rd fixture I put there....

I think that light wasted quite a lot of electricity. I rewired the
fixture to eliminate the motion part (direct to bulb), and just use the
switch in the barn when I need that light now.

I dont forsee myself ever buying another motion light. On my house, I
have a LED porch light, uses 6 watts. I just leave it on at night now.
leaving on the 6w light all night uses less than that 100w motion light
used when it was always going on and off.

I also heard that those motion lights do not work well if the bulb uses
too little power. The LOAD needs to be a certain minimum wattage. 6W
is probably too little. I'm not sure how true that is.`

Hi,
Did you have one with sensor sensitivity and turn off delay adjustment
feature? One here just works fine after I adjusted them. I use LED
bulbs. It needs enough load if Triac is used.