Outdoor motion sensor lights

[idleprocess]

I've been noticing a trend in my neighborhood of motion sensor lights getting installed that trigger on ... anything ... the sensor can detect. Someone walking along the sidewalk. A vehicle driving in the street. Detritus blowing in the wind. A small animal roving around. Someone walking on the sidewalk on the other side of the street. A neighbor has a unit with a 180° sensor that triggers should I walk across my own driveway.

I suspect that once the novelty of the light going off all the time wears off in the first couple of days the homeowner ignores the light triggering much like everyone else in the neighborhood, completely negating the value of a motion light over continuous lighting. While I realize that DIY is on the decline and PIR sensors don't ship with fussy interior masking strips any more, many can be angled to limit view distance and ship with range/sensitivity adjustments. And should the 'smart' variety use the camera motion for detection, zones can be configured.

I find this oversensitivity mildly annoying since the things go off constantly at night yet there's never a reaction - even if I'm walking dogs at 1 in the morning upsetting other residents' dogs inside and outside. Sometimes when I'm feeling churlish I'll light up the house in return. I've got my doubts that anyone with cameras is bothering to either tune in or review any associated footage later.

 

[knucklegary]

We have these nervous folks in my neighborhood too. Hopefully once they get their electricity bill they'll rethink the security floods.
Not sure about your State, County laws, but in CA there are codes against nuisance flood lights being a form of harassment

 

[neutralwhite]

I prefer the switch on off ones.

 

[bykfixer]

I have a motion sensor light that only works in the daytime. Seriously. It used to work at night but at one point started turning on while I would cut grass and what not but stopped turning on at all at night. The sensor is all frosted over. I suppose that's why.
The fellow who added the den onto my house (before I bought it) direct wired it to an outlet so it has no on/off switch. When the bulb died I just didn't replace it. He had installed it so that whenever his son played basketball it would light up that part of the yard and he wouldn't have to keep reminding him "turn off the backyard light".

 

[chillinn]

I hate these things. Neighbor has one that is far too bright right by the front gate near the mailbox that is aimed right at the face of anyone foolish enough to exit or enter through the gate, which is me when checking my mail sometimes after dark in the winter months. I have slowly become accustomed to aiming my flashlight at the sensor to defeat it. I suppose my problem isn't with the thing itself, just where it is placed, because it defeats its own purpose by insta-blinding instead of illuminating a path or area. For a solar charged light, it is impressively bright, as bright as a wired work light, but, again, thoughtlessly and stupidly deployed.

 

[idleprocess]

Hopefully once they get their electricity bill they'll rethink the security floods.

In a region with 6 months' of air conditioning season and a neighborhood with electric ovens and dryers, LED lighting is a drop in the bucket.

Not sure about your State, County laws, but in CA there are codes against nuisance flood lights being a form of harassment

I could look into this, however their proliferation over the years suggests there's nothing in the law to mitigate this. Frame your business's storefront with LED or neon strips on the other hand, the city will be all up in your business.

I prefer the switch on off ones.

Constant outdoor lighting is more predictable and seems to dissuade ne'er-do-wells as well as - if not better than - the typical phoned-in motion sensor light that's >99% false alarms and ignored by all.

I have slowly become accustomed to aiming my flashlight at the sensor to defeat it.

I've yet to encounter any of these that will be so kind as to deactivate when I return the favor.

 

[orbital]

+

My neighbor rebuild his garage couple years ago, his new garage had motion sensing floods installed.
That's all fine, but they are pointed at my bedroom and would go off for anything, sometimes every couple minutes.
This isn't such a big deal until winter snowpack & his two floods reflecting off the snow could land a fxxxing jumbo jet.

I think he had someone adjust them or the two floods burnt out cause they haven't been going off lately..

btw- not far from me someone has some super bright lights installed; even being a flashaholic, I think it's just stupid bright to leave on.
he's lucky I'm not his neighbor.

 

[chillinn]

I've yet to encounter any of these that will be so kind as to deactivate when I return the favor.

If I hit it with light before I trip the motion sensor, it just stays off. If I trip the motion sensor, it takes a beat before the light shuts off, and I have to stay on target to keep it off. I've only tried this with incan, Tad's A3712, which will work up to 20 feet for deactivation, maybe further, but I usually turn a corner about there. If you're using LED, try incan to deactivate it. Maybe it works better.

 

[The Hawk]

We had a couple of those installed on a garage we had built. They are adjustable, so I set them to only come on when something walked onto our property. Plus, they only light up our driveway and turn around area.