PIR's that actually work

Can anyone give me some PIR's they have installed and know work reliably, I've tried a few different ones from Toolstation, screwfix and TLC and they all seem to be a bit hit and miss. They come on and off all night causing a nusience to the neighbours, but when i walk down the drive directly past them they don't turn on until i trip up the door step! I've spent hours adjusting them and repositioning them so you walk across the beam, I've tried them high 7ft, just off the ground and several positions in between but, they still don't behave as they should. Just looking for people that could recommend a good one from personal experience

 

My go to standalone PIR is Steinel. Failing that I'll use Ansell as they're in most wholesalers. TLC sell them, but not screwfix though. Not sure about Toolstation.

 

I agree, Steinel PIRs are extremely good.

 

Gave up all that crap years ago ....only fit gjd lighting systems now or nothing

 

Clipsal infrascan

Fitted plenty of these and they are bullet proof. Fitted one on my parents house 20+ years ago and it still works like a charm and picks up from 10m away.

You get what you pay for

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00EO2VA9U/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_L3gVEbR1PN1AJ

 

I have used Clipsal before, but the older rectangular design. And Steinel too are very good, IME.

However, I have had great success with cheaper kit, albeit running a smaller load. In '99 I fitted a cheap £9 stand alone passive from B&Q to our 60W porch light (the 'salers were shut and I thought to myself I would fit a cheap one and replace it with a decent one from WF when it assuredly popped off).

Well, it's still going strong now and is currently switching a 9W LED lamp.

I'm sure the reliability issue with cheap kit comes with higher current draw. That applies not just for PIR's but all sorts of equipment.

 

It's not reliability i'm after improving. The PIR's don't fail they just don't seem to work when you want them to and then then they go off all night when a gnat flies past. I'll try a sentinel and clipsal. The load is only 10 3w LED's so 30W and a 300W LED on another one

 

Are you by any chance walking towards the PIR when it's not working for you ?
A lot of people don't realise that PIR sensors are really really poor at detecting things moving directly towards/away from them. They work by the warm object moving across their field of view, the lens then focusses the IR radiation onto a pair of sensors, and the varying difference between the sensor outputs triggers the switching. When moving directly towards/away from them, the relative amount of IR falling on the two sensors does not change very much - so they don't trigger.

So, a PIR is poor if you put it at the end of a path. It needs to be off to the side of the path so you are walking across the field of view of the PIR.

 

the PIR's are along the side of the drive and i walk up and down the drive to test them so they are at 90 degrees to the normal direction of travel. They seem fine when i initially set them up but when i come home in the evening or early morning in the dark and walk or drive up the drive they don't always turn on. But them keep coming on and off all night as i can see them from our bedroom window

 

Are you aiming them right ? Usually there's a diagram in the instructions showing the detection pattern - typically the PIR needs to be about horizontal and it "looks down" for the detection areas. If you point it directly at where you want it to detect, then it'll be looking at the ground closer to the PIR - so it won't detect you (you're "above" it's detection zones), but it will detect everything that walks past on the ground (e.g. the neighbours' cats).

My small sample suggest that these are a reasonable device. Adjustable for sensitivity, on-time, and light level (i.e. how dark is "night" for it to operate).

 

There's also the possibility that your frequent false activity is cats. Hot, fast and all night!

 

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