PIR Floodlights

[Davidm]

I have a PIR floodlight fitted to a post in my garden, adjacent to my garage which is in a block of garages next to my garden. The light is powered from my shed/greenhouse which is at the end of a 50m or so cable run from the house.

The problem with the light is that the integral PIR fails every 1-3 years and I have to replace it. I've only ever used fairly cheap (£10-£15) lights from the diy sheds. I'm wondering if the failures are caused by the greenhouse fan heater causing spikes on the supply when it switches on/off, or maybe just cos they're cheap lights (so far only bought halogen lights, not LED).

Any thoughts before I go and try a more expensive one, and maybe see that fail as well? Comments on a lot of the Screwfix lights complain of early failures.

[tabbypurr]

it's almost certainly because you use halogens, they have the greatest PIR killing ability of all domestic light types. Use LEDs.

NT

[newshound]

+1. I've had no problems with cheap LED ones.

[Davidm]

I did buy a LED one last year but never fitted it. The beam was way to wide and it couldn't be tilted down far enough to avoid the neighbours windows. I've stripped off of PIR and now use it as a work light.

I'll have another look around and see if I can get a unit with a more restricted spread (in the vertical plane).

[tabbypurr]

PIR killing ability of all domestic light types. Use LEDs.

How do you tilt an LED lightbulb down?

One way to limit vertical spread is to cover some glass panels and the top with ali from a drink can.

NT

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Same here - from Lidl. Perhaps they think the main purpose is to illuminate buildings? If so, why fit a PIR?

Luckily I didn't want the PIR so just removed it. Could then tilt it down so it actually lit the ground. ;-) Still was better value than similar without PIR, though.

[Graham.]

On Fri, 10 Nov 2017 07:57:11 -0800 (PST), [e-mail] coalesced the vapors of human experience into a viable and meaningful comprehension...

He didn't, he tilted it down on it's swivel bracket to make the top of the beam avoid the windows opposite and found that the PIR was now angled too steeply to detect oncoming people. It's a common problem with the floodlights with integral PIRs that the majority of installers don't seem to even recognise.

Soapbox mode off.

[Graham.]

On Fri, 10 Nov 2017 16:55:30 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)" coalesced the vapors of human experience into a viable and meaningful comprehension...

Tell me about it. I had a row with the "electrician" working opposite, I just caught him as he was taking his ladder down and noticed he had put up a new LED flood pointing 90 deg out. It doesn't even have a PIR it is on a dawn/dusk or perhaps a time switch. His view was that angling it downwards would somehow reduce the effectiveness of the lamp for his customer. He did eventually capitulate and adjusted it somewhat and it's not nearly so bad, but it could have gone a bit further ideally.

[John Rumm]

Generally I have found the standalone PIRs to be more reliable that the ones built into lamps.

[PeterC]

The CFL light that came from Lidl about 7 - 8 years ago is still working on its PIR (it's very impressive - full light instantly and about 4500K at a guess). I angled down as much as was reasonable as I hate floodlights. The 3 or 4 separate PIRs from Aldidl have all failed bar 1 - 2 of them malfuncioning from 'new' (but too old to be in warranty!). Currently using a couple from TS, at about a tenner each. I rather fance the hemispherical ones from TLC(?) - but £30 each...!

[Harry Bloomfield]

Graham. formulated the question :

It is the manufacturers who are responsible for this ridiculous design issue.

[Davidm]

Spot on Graham, beat me to it :)

[Bill Wright]

You just mask it with black tape.

Bill

[tabbypurr]

or the people that buy them

[charles]

I ordered a new LED flood yesterday and rejected all thos ethat didn't have a separate angle for the PIR. The others look so much "smarter".

[Dave Plowman (News)]

It really didn't occur to me until after I'd bought the LED replacements for my old halogen ones. The halogen ones could be wall mounted, but pointing vertically down. But didn't include PIRs.

What you'd need is the PIR mounted pretty well independently of the actual lamp for maximum flexibility. So more expensive to make.