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Saturday, December 5, 2009

Motion sensors and porch ceilings - electrical, part 3




Having exterior lights on motion sensors is great for a number of reasons, including safety and energy efficiency.  Unfortunately, most exterior lights with built-in motion sensors are ugly.  A solution to this problem is to buy a motion sensor unit (without the light) and install it yourself in some discrete location near the light.  If the walls/ceiling are open this is obviously easy; if they are closed up you will need to snake wires.  It's a little more complicated than installing switches so you might need to call an electrician.

Two earlier electrical posts:
     In praise of push buttons -- electrical, part 1
     In praise of dimmers -- electrical, part 2

FYI:  The porch ceiling is made of 5" x 10 ft lengths of pine beadboard that had three coats of exterior-grade spar urethane applied before being nailed up.