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.
Many such sensors have an adjustment. Does yours have one?
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.
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.
It might be defective, I have bought many and never had that issue.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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