Sly Bald Guys' Blog

I recently remodeled my house and spent A LOT of money doing it. Though out of all the expensive things that I put into the house the one thing that has everyone saying "that's so cool!" only cost me $15 and will probably save me more money than that by the time I have to replace it. So, what is this cool little gadget that gets all the applause? Well, if you looked at the picture on this post you can already tell that I'm talking about a light switch. Though, this isn't any little light switch, it's a motion sensing light switch.

What's cool about motion sensing light switch? First off, when your friends go to walk down the hall to use the bathroom they don't have to go searching for the light switch. Instead as the get near the hall, BAM!, the lights automatically turn on. And if you have it setup like me, another series of lights turn on as they get further down the hall. Secondly, as you open your bedroom door at night to go out into the hallway the light automatically turns on so you don't have to fumble around looking for the switch. And last, but not least, you save money because you don't leave the lights on when you're not in that area. This is great for people who have kids who tend to always leave the lights on.

To make the most out of the motion sensing lights I put one at the entry way of my house so when I open the front door the light turns on. This is also tied to the first light in my hallway. The second motion sensor is toward the back of the hall where all the bedrooms are located. This way when someon leaves a bedroom the hallway lights turn on. I would have also put these in the bedrooms, but we opted for dimming switches instead.

Where can you get these motion sensing switches? You can get them from Home Depot, Lowes, and Amazon.com. There's a variety of brands that you can buy that range from $15 to $60. They come in two models, either 180 degree or 150 degree. I opted for the 150 degree by Cooper Wiring Devices as they were only $15 and I liked that it had a manual switch for On, Auto, and Off.

Here's the model that I have: