Security lights help please

[Clive]

Have an issue with the numerous LED security lights around the house and grounds that were all installed 18 months ago when we were completing the rebuild, all done at the same time, same light with the same type of remote mounted sensor

Basically, whenever it gets windy they go on and off a lot - I guess they are picking up the movement of trees and plants etc

The electrician that installed them says nothing he can do - the sensors work of movement alone and that's that ....... live with it everyone has the same issue

My AV guys, however, say that they should work on heat and movement so tress should not set them off? only people and animals should do


Who is telling me the truth, please? I have a feeling the electrician maybe being economical with the truth under fear of having tho replace them all ?

 

[Steevo]

Surely that depends on the lamp and sensor you have bought.

I have to admit I never knew standard PIR sensors were heat sensitive but Google confirms it. That said I’ve always has trouble with wind setting off PIR lights!

 

[Steevo]

@Pheasant Surprise will know!

 

[Clive]

Surely that depends on the lamp and sensor you have bought.

I have to admit I never knew standard PIR sensors were heat sensitive but Google confirms it. That said I’ve always has trouble with wind setting off PIR lights!

must be a way to stop wind setting them off surely ?- house a field away must think we are trying to communicate via morse code !

 

[Lincs Lass]

Have the PIRs got a sensitivity dial

 

[Lincs Lass]

I used to get ducks walking past mine ,,I pleased they got shot ,,I mean cleared of ,,I was convinced they were doing on purpose

 

[Pennine Ploughing]

must be a way to stop wind setting them off surely ?- house a field away must think we are trying to communicate via morse code !

Or they think your a flasher,

 

[Highland Mule]

PIR = Passive Infra Red, so assuming that’s what you have, they must be detecting something with an IR signature.

 

[farmerm]

Every days a school day.... PIR is Passive Intra Red so they should be trigged by movement of something radiating some heat...

 

[Grandad Pig]

I have found that a rat can trigger mine, moving across the detection area, whereas a human can fail to trigger them moving straight towards or away from them. They work but seem sensitive to movement in certain directions and less so to movement in others.

 

[Tarw Coch]

Security lights come on a lot here too in windy weather, not sure wether it’s the wind or the guard dogs are on edge and patrolling more

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

I believe (but I’m by no means an expert on them), is that it’s down to the sensors sensitivity of the infra red heat “signature” it’s detecting. Windy weather plays havoc, as these sensors are (generally) pretty cheap and are fairly blunt in their measurement of changes in the heat patterns that they are detecting in their sensing zone. They’re not as clever as a proper camera.

On some of these PIR sensors you can alter the sensitivity as well as the trigger area, by swapping the segmented “lens” that covers them. That might help with the false triggers??

...it’s no consolation but the Steinel ones I have are just as rubbish when the wind really picks up.

 

[Jhabc]

Have an issue with the numerous LED security lights around the house and grounds that were all installed 18 months ago when we were completing the rebuild, all done at the same time, same light with the same type of remote mounted sensor

Basically, whenever it gets windy they go on and off a lot - I guess they are picking up the movement of trees and plants etc

The electrician that installed them says nothing he can do - the sensors work of movement alone and that's that ....... live with it everyone has the same issue

My AV guys, however, say that they should work on heat and movement so tress should not set them off? only people and animals should do


Who is telling me the truth, please? I have a feeling the electrician maybe being economical with the truth under fear of having tho replace them all ?

Have exactly the same problem here and it is a complete pain in the A. Assuming that they are the thin & flat ones the problem is that they are too light and act a bit like a sail and the wind shakes them and sets off the PIR. The old halogen ones were much heavier plus gave shelter to the PIR below. When it's raining water also flows straight down them onto the PIR and it does set them off. You can get them in an old style halogen style/fitting with a glass lens on the front and I'm changing mine to those. It was like the Blackpool illuminations last night and they were literally lighting up every 5 minutes.

 

[Tomr10]

We get spiders setting them off also

 

[Bongodog]

Problem is that they are all fairly cheap and nasty, whatever the brand. we are just used to cheaply made goods and whilst we may often say that we would be willing to pay a little more for quality, the reality is that very few would

 

[A1an]

I had the same issue with a particular light, it has the ability to reduce the sensitivity of the PIR. A bit of trial and error but works perfect now.

The problem with these lights nowadays is they make the LED unit completely water proof but stick a cheap as chips PIR unit on the bottom of it. Its always the PIR that fails and makes you bin a perfectly serviceable LED light.

 

[Steevo]

Problem is that they are all fairly cheap and nasty, whatever the brand. we are just used to cheaply made goods and whilst we may often say that we would be willing to pay a little more for quality, the reality is that very few would

Many firms just charge more for equally dubious quality. High price and high quality don’t always go together.

 

[Fergieman]

Most of ours have the PIR sensor seperatly mounted from the light, so either can be changed by itself also means the sensor is at a better height to beem outwards rather than downwards if mounted on light.

 

[Exfarmer]

They do not like branches and shoots waving close to them. Trim them back and dont usually get too much issue with them

 

[How much]

wind setting them off pir's seem pretty common place, as others have mentioned the sensors do seem pretty useless and as allot of the more expensive brands just mark up the same cheap product there is no gaurentee that paying more will = better

Although I did replace one once that I thought was faulty and it turned out to be a bad N connection causing what looked to be false activation , the tell tale was it was flashing on and off when dark even when there was no wind .

We have some outdoor lights on bulkhead fittings working with microwave sensors as opposed to PIR they work in a different manner in that they apparently sense a microwave pattern coming back to the sensor and when if differs , say door opens the bounce back to the sensor differs and they trigger they work great in corridors narrow areas and sense you approaching so work before you would have set them off if they where a pir often before you can even physically see the light as you would with a traditional PIR , the sensors look much the same as PIR's do but never get any false activation's not 100 % sure they would work as well in a larger more open area but may be worth investigating if you are getting nowhere with PIR operated items