Driveway Floodlight Replacement - Standalone PIR and Additional Downlights

[R Stringer]

Good Afternoon All,

My existing PIR floodlight has failed and I am looking to replace it with some additional upgrades

The PIR on the floodlight didn't do a great job at picking up motion and I could often walk right up to it before it would detect movement. It wouldn't detect when I drove my car onto the drive at all. The PIR also picked up a lot of my neighbours movement as it is a shared driveway - something I would like to avoid. Really the PIR was in the wrong place to achieve what I wanted it to.

Now I am replacing the floodlight, I have a revised plan to hopefully improve detection on my side of the shared driveway. I would like to install a new floodlight without a PIR in the existing floodlight location - most likely a 30W as the current 50W is too big for the height its at and seems unnecessary. I plan to install a PIR sensor (like this) on the right hand side of the garage, underneath the soffit, which I can turn towards my side of the drive to minimise activation by neighbours. It would be good to have a PIR that has an override facility as the way its wired it will be on PIR or off. I'd like to avoid changing to a two gang switch to provide the options of ON/OFF/PIR. A minor issue I foresee with the PIR is I wanted to feed the cable through the bottom of the soffit and into the PIR, rather than through the wall, as the cable will all be fed along the soffit to get to the PIR and then back across to all 3 lights. I can't find a PIR with top cable entry that also swivels horizontally.



I'm aware a microwave sensor would be better at detecting vehicles on the driveway, however I would like to avoid them and stick to PIR to minimise unwanted light activation.

Im also planning on installing two of these downlights in the soffit above the garage door which I would also like to activate by PIR. Initially I was going to have these controlled by a separate recessed 360 PIR in the centre of the soffit, but I think I may as well have the one PIR control all 3 lights to minimise wiring as a DIYer.



Currently I have the existing PIR floodlight powered from a light switch feeding a single gang DP switch to the floodlight with Wago connections in a Wago box. My plan is is take the power to the PIR and then out to the first downlight and daisy to the next downlight and then finally to the floodlight by Wago connections and in a Wago box as below:



Im using 1.5mm twin and earth rather than 1mm flex as I already have a lot of it. I have noticed that some PIR's do not have earth connections - if this is the case I plan on just using a wago within the PIR if room allows for those. The downlights I've chosen do have CPC terminals.

I'm posting to check the plan and wiring is ok or if anyone more experienced has any better solutions/ products to use.

Thanks in advance!

 

[flameport]

All pictures unavailable as they apparently require signing in to some other forum.
Either ask questions there, or put the pictures here.

 

[R Stringer]

My apologies, updated.

 

[foxhole]

Most Pir controlled lights can be turn on/off from single switch .Then back to Pir by delaying the on switch by 30 secs or so.

 

[ericmark]

I had a similar problem, either the PIR was set off with passing cat, or would switch off at most inopportune moment.

I have 8 outside lights now, 6 are in some way smart controlled.

Not ideal locations, used where wires already run or holes already drilled. 2 are to get to front door, which is rarely used, so still on indoor switch and PIR. But will list the others as may help you with ideas.

House built on a hill with parking both above and below. So two PIR flood lights at bottom replaced with two carrage lamps, but with smart bulbs, really the range is not enough, but mainly due to tree and shed, the Wiz bulb has a fad out feature, so it will not plunge one into darkness. But neither shine into the living room which has patio doors so yesterday added a smart switch to living room, with curtains open this now fully lights the drive as well.

Side of house an old bulkhead lamp, powered with a smart socket adaptor that also does Christmas lights at this time of year,.

By the back door an old carrage light, powered from a two gang smart switch that also works vestibule lamp, the old lamp is still PIR controlled so often left on for visitors.

Corner of house a integral carrage lamp powered again by a socket adaptor, really a lot better than bulb carrage lamps as light shines down.

As the path joints the drive there is a carrage standard lamp with a colour changing smart bulb, set to green at Halloween and colour changing at Christmas, but normally white. Outside socket it is plugged into also powers pond pump, so although outside socket plugged in to socket in utility room, using a smart socket adaptor would also turn pond pump on/off so smart bulb better option.

I can when indoors with voice command turn on one at a time or all 6 together with "hey Google turn on outside lights" out side Google home app on phone can turn them all on/off.

The tapo light switches and socket adaptors have dusk and dawn features, so 6 am to dawn 4 days a week auto switch on for milkman. Daughter also has Google home access.

Not perfect, but hope gives some ideas. I actually turn on wife's bedroom, and office lights to help light front upper drive, but trees cause problems masking some lights.

I also have door bell auto turn on one outside and vestibule light.

 

[R Stringer]

Thanks for your suggestions Eric. I've considered smart bulbs/plugs/sockets as I've got a comprehensive smart system and routines through alexa inside the house.

For the driveway though, I wanted to keep it as simple as motion detected = lights on for 1 minute or so. I don't plan on having them on dusk till dawn for for extended periods of time to keep our energy bills as low as they can be.

I considered routines with geofencing to turn them on for 5 minutes when arriving and routines that turn them on at a certain time/for a period in the winter mornings when leaving for work in the dark.

The limitations I see are; they wont turn on when popping out to the garage or putting the bins out unless I turn them on myself or turn them back off when I go back inside (something I know ill forget to do). Hue GU10's are also around £30 each pushing the cost up.

PIR is the best way I can see to keep things simple and achieve what i'm after whilst minimising running costs.

 

[sparkymarka]

Fit a GJD controller and pir ( low voltage connection to controller ) much better than all that cheap rubbish on the market ….