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.