PIR security lights - the next generation?
Posted: April 26th, 2024, 9:17 am
Living out in the rural sticks as we do, we have to pay a certain amount of attention to security lighting if we want to keep the bad lads away in the dead of night. Until now I've tended to rely on halogen PIR floodlights (120 or 500 watts), which tend to be aluminium-bodied, and which rarely last more than six or eight years before water gets into them, and then it's game over. Usually the bulbs go, and then you find that the seals have failed and they're full of water, and probably spiders too.
I recently noticed that one of ours was out. The bulb had been fried, but so had the neon in the indoor spur point that supplied the light. To be precise, the tiny transistor-thingy on the neon's cable had gone black, and the insulation was a molten mess. Oops, time for a rethink. (Once I'd changed the spur point, obviously.)
There have been LED PIR lamps for some time now, but this one came with the magic words "remote controller". https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CMTFJ5PM . And it's early days so far, but a bit of a revelation really. No more climbing up a ladder to twiddle the adjusters in the dark! (It has no physical adjusters at all, and seems to be hermetically sealed.) I can have it working as a PIR or as a constant light, in which case I'll be glad I can turn down the brightness from 3000 lumens to virtually nothing. Or change the PIR sensitivity. And all from ground level, at the push of a button.
Yes, this seems like progress. All I have to do now is hide the remote controller somewhere where I won't lose it. Will report back on how the experiment goes.
BJ
I recently noticed that one of ours was out. The bulb had been fried, but so had the neon in the indoor spur point that supplied the light. To be precise, the tiny transistor-thingy on the neon's cable had gone black, and the insulation was a molten mess. Oops, time for a rethink. (Once I'd changed the spur point, obviously.)
There have been LED PIR lamps for some time now, but this one came with the magic words "remote controller". https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CMTFJ5PM . And it's early days so far, but a bit of a revelation really. No more climbing up a ladder to twiddle the adjusters in the dark! (It has no physical adjusters at all, and seems to be hermetically sealed.) I can have it working as a PIR or as a constant light, in which case I'll be glad I can turn down the brightness from 3000 lumens to virtually nothing. Or change the PIR sensitivity. And all from ground level, at the push of a button.
Yes, this seems like progress. All I have to do now is hide the remote controller somewhere where I won't lose it. Will report back on how the experiment goes.
BJ