Motion sensor switches.

[trikkonceptz]

Thanks Doax, but I quickly realizing that this does not exist. WTH? Perhaps someone here with a little electrical background can invent them and make some money ...

What we need is;

LED Night light that turns on via motion sensor only when its dark. If you want to add icing to the cake and make it perfect consider an adjustment screw for sensor sensitivity.

[Daox]

Ah, built in motion detection. You might have to look specifically into occupancy sensors. I'd imagine they have to be made to work in the dark. I think some of them use ultrasonic detection.

[trikkonceptz]

Looks like Leviton makes an occupancy switch that may work. While they have a very technical website, they have very poor descriptions of their product, however it looks lke what I would need.

Thank you.

[Ryland]

An LED night light like I think you are talking about could end up drawing less power while on then the motion sensor draws the rest of the time as the motion sensor tends to draw 2-5 watts.

[trikkonceptz]

That is what I am trying to determine now. I current have a setup that has three LED's inside them. However, because of the cheap light sensor they have they are on 24/7/365. And unfortunately I have not been able to find any info related to power consumption, so I currently have no way of knowing which set up would be better.

[Daox]

I have one of each. I have one that stays on 24/7 and one that has a photo sensor. While I don't like the idea of the one staying on all the time, I know it draws a fraction of a watt, so I just leave it at that. The one I have looks like this.

Thanks Daox For providing such a great link that are very helpful and i found lots of cool home automation stuff in this link.

[herlichka]

Occupancy sensors are a very efficient way to control lighting, but you will need to do a fair bit of research and be willing to do a lot of fine tuning in the application. As a former "material guy" for an electrical contractor I learned a lot about these products.
-Some models feature controls ( on-off-auto ), decide if you want people to be able to manually turn lights on-off.
-Be sure that the one you choose is compatible with the type of lighting that you want to control.
-Some models have to be reset after a power failure, they may revert to the "on" mode, or the time delay may change. If they are in a difficult place to access, such as near the ceiling, you may regret installing them.
-The application, siting, may be the most challenging issue. People are not the only "things" that can activate sensors. Beware of things such as sunlight shining through a window, setting up thermal air currents, forced air heating and cooling, leaves on potted plants moving, even the controlled lights themselves may set up thermal air currents that can trick the sensor into thinking someone is in the room.

If you are careful to select the correct unit, and patient enough to tweak the install, then these are an awesome energy saver. If you talk your local electrical supplier, and ask the right questions he can direct you to the right products. Do your homework, there are many products available with specific features, that are not stock items at the big-box-stores, but can be had at similar prices, often overnight, from your electrical supplier.
I hope that this is helpful.
I just re-read your original post, and thought of something else; restrooms can be additionally tricky, the sensor has to be positioned so as to sense the presence of a person in the room AND in the stall, the lights may turn off if the person in the stall is quietly taking a long time, and this is a situation where someone may turn the sensor to "on" if it is equipped with manual switches.

[AC_Hacker]

I have been investigating occupancy sensing lighting, too.

I had one in the bathroom before and it worked well for a long time. I don't have one right now and I really miss the automatic switch.

I have another one, hacked into providing light to the kitchen sink during the night and also dim days. I am using LEDs for task light in the kitchen... I also have strings of xmas lights on the same circuit, strung casually about.

I found that if I included one small incandescent in the array, it would work fine with all the LEDs.

The first sensor switch was from a thrift store when I got it and it didn't last so long. I bought another, which is working well, so far.

I did notice a noteworthy difference in the two sensor switches I have experienced, they both have sensitivity and duration controls...

One of them has three modes, ON, OFF and AUTO. With this one, if light is needed, but not on, you have to enter into the ON-OFF-AUTO cycle to get it back where you want it when you're done.

The other one is pretty much all AUTO, but smart auto. When you need light and it is not on, you push on and it acts the same as if it was triggered by occupancy, it stays on and its duration is re-triggered each time it senses occupancy. When a non-occupancy event is longer that 'duration', it goes off and re-enters auto mode.

This second switch is much better, in my opinion.

* * *

I have also wished that there was an occupancy switch that had a fairly fast ramp on (one sec. or so) and a slow ramp when it went off (maybe 10 secs or more).

I have looked around, and have found nothing that will do this... with the exception of this amazing instructable.

(* Can you spell A-R-D-U-I-N-O? *)

-AC