If you have a home security system, it most likely includes motion sensor lighting.  Thieves like to operate out of sight.  They break into dwellings when the occupant isn’t present.  They don’t want anything to draw attention to their activities.  Security alarms and lights do draw attention, and that’s why a motion sensor light is one of the most basic elements of any security system.

Typically, motion sensors for lights are connected to outdoor flood lights.  When an object moves within the sensor’s field of discrimination, the circuit is activated and the strong flood lights illuminate the area.  Many sensors also have built-in light level detectors.  They can be adjusted to remain completely dark until triggered, or they can be set to put out some low level of illumination at night, and then step up to full illumination when triggered.  They can also be left on continuously throughout the day and only activate at night, when the light level sensor detects darkness.

Standard motion sensor flood lights are comprised of two flood lights, adjustable to point in any desired direction.  The outdoor lighting motion sensor itself is also adjustable, for both direction and sensitivity.  In this way the field to be illuminated can be almost any area you care to define, and the sensitivity will allow the sensor to discriminate between a real intrusion threat and, for example, leaves or branches moving in the wind.

The bulbs themselves are often standard tungsten-filament bulbs, but high-pressure sodium lamps are used with equal frequency.  These types of bulbs put out greater luminosity than standard bulbs with less energy consumption.  Fluorescent lighting is also often used.

Although a motion sensor security light is the most common application, lights tied to motion sensors are also a great benefit in and of themselves.  They allow porch lights to turn on when your or a guest approaches your door.  They switch on garage lighting when the door opens.  They allow you to clearly see keys and lock openings at night, and illuminate hazardous cracks in sidewalks as you approach.

They are often also used inside residences, although generally not with flood lamps.  Inside applications are often more for energy savings than matters of convenience.  While it is convenient for a light to come on when you enter a room, it is often of more value for the lights to go off when you leave the room.  Many modern office buildings are equipped with such features and save thousands of dollars in energy usage.  The motion sensors can be tied to overhead lighting, table lamps, or both.  Many also shut off the fixtures if no motion is detected in the room for a specified period of time.

Sure, you’ve given some thought to your interior alarm system… but have you considered the benefits to protecting the outside of your property as well, with motion sensor flood lights? Inside alarm systems are important for stopping hardened criminals in the middle of their crimes, but the weak point of that form of security is that the burglar is already inside, doing whatever he wants. Being quite logically paranoid by nature, many burglars can be scared off without ever having broken inside in the first place. It doesn’t even take an alarm or siren, just a simple bright spotlight revealing them and their misguided intentions to the world. And so motion sensor lights, while an additional expense, are very often an investment that is well worth the cost for keeping your property safe.

Most motion sensors for lights come packaged with one or two good-sized floodlights, and are intended to be mounted with those lights to get the widest overall view of the area. However, this doesn’t mean that you are limited to only the included lights! While it’s easiest, especially for people not great at electrical work, to just use what’s in the frequently pre-wired package, there’s usually nothing preventing you from hooking up additional lights to the system for extra protection. Imagine a thief all in black, creeping around your yard… then, flash, the lights turn on, and suddenly he’s got nowhere to hide! He could keep on with his planned misdeeds, but he’ll have to do them in full view. And the sudden brilliant lighting will more likely than not attract eyes to windows to see what’s going on. If YOU were a thief, you’d probably run, wouldn’t you? That’s the kind of security even one motion sensor light can provide, to stop crime before it even starts.

As with interior motion-based security systems, an outdoor lighting motion sensor is tweaked to only go off in very specific circumstances. It will ignore slow atmospheric heat changes, as well as small heat signatures generated by animals. Only when a person walks close will the lights flick on, making it a certainty that people will be clearly illuminated by your motion sensor security light while false positives are avoided.

Almost all of these systems will also let you turn the lights on manually. Need lights for a party in the evening? The security system can double as a lighting system for such benign purposes. If you were going to buy outdoor lights anyway, you may save a not insignificant amount of money by buying lights as part of an overall security package.

As a last consideration, for those of you who are particularly interested in cutting costs on electricity, there have been recent innovations in the area of solar-powered outdoor security systems. In the daytime, the systems will soak up the sun, and at night, they’ll convert that sunlight into security illumination. If you go this route, you’ll have to pay a little more for a quality solar-powered system, but you’ll more than make up the added expense in future savings. However, you should be careful to only buy a model that has gotten good customer reviews and is produced by a trusted company in the industry. Some models are so low-powered in lighting as to be essentially worthless, and it would be a waste of money to buy a product that doesn’t adequately protect your property.

Motion sensor lighting are used for a variety of purposes. Some of its uses are illustrated here. They are used for security purposes for instance. The bright lights can scare off possible intruders. This is done by detecting their movements around the motion detectors, and creating an alert by switching the bright lights on. It is also helpful in other ways. For instance, if you have just come back home in the night, you do not have to struggle with putting your keys into the keyhole; the lights will immediately make the keyhole clearly visible. You also will not stumble or trip around the stairs in front of your doors in the darkness. Additionally, it automatically helps to save electricity, in that it naturally turns off the lights when there is no movement outside the door.

Some of the very popular brands in this product category are Nightguardian and Leviton. Other popular brands include EML and Heath Zenith etc. Motion sensor lights come with both the auto-on and auto-off facilities, as well as the manual-on and manual-off capabilities. This is good because this way, if you decide to use the light indoors, the light will not be automatically turned on or off due to the presence or absence of movement around it respectively. Being able to manually override is thus useful both in terms of switching on and off when required.

Of course, irrespective of whether the light is used outside or inside the house, the manual overriding feature must be installed inside the house, so that it cannot be manipulated by an outsider. A capability to adjust the time-frame, for which the light will remain on upon detecting movement, is also available. You can also use the remote motion type of detectors. These detectors are specialized detectors that can be used to detect absolutely any movement in a far away distance from the actual installation location of the light. In this case, radio waves are employed for instant wireless communication with the switch, to turn on the lights when the intruder or incoming person or vehicle or any moving object comes within the set remote distance range. With these detectors you can avail between 90 degree to complete, 360 degree, surround footprint worth of detection range.

If you feel that some areas are safe enough or unused enough to generate only false alarm, in the event of any local movement in that location, then you can deactivate that angle of coverage by simply taping that much angle of the sensor with a black tape. Reaction times might be lagged during temperature falls, due to changing weather. Hence, the threshold minimum operating temperatures must be maintained around the sensors. Motion sensor lights are available in regular lights, porch lights as well as flood lights variety. You can also save on costs by going for the solar powered lights or battery powered LED lights etc.

Everyone uses lights in their day-to-day lives, but it’s not too often that people stop to consider the potential benefits of particularly sophisticated lighting, such as motion detectorlights. A motion sensor light can serve many different purposes, from security to convenience to saving on one’s electricity bill. If you’ve ever gone out walking at night and noticed motion sensor flood lights turn on near a house turn on as you walked past, you probably thought it was pretty neat. But besides being neat, these kinds of lights can offer concrete advantages that any homeowner should think about.

Starting with security, for example, any motion sensor security light can make a fine addition to one’s lawn. By illuminating the general area before a criminal has even broken in, crime can be averted through intimidation, or by neighbors seeing the intrusion. This is generally more effective than an indoors security system as a first crime prevention measure, since it means that you will have no broken windows, no battered doors, no lost valuables.

An outdoor lighting motion sensor has more to offer than being merely a security system, however. It also serves to save precious power and cut down on bills. Instead of having to turn the light off every single time you’re not around, it will turn itself off, resulting in an efficient lighting system without any added bother to the people nearby. Adding motion sensors for lights can also help streamline your busy life in other ways. How many times have you had your hands full with groceries and had a difficult time fumbling for the light switch? With a lighting system like this, there’s no more fumbling around. You can be sure of your footing simply by being in the area and moving around, without needing switches or buttons or remote controls.

These light systems generally operate off of an easily afforded and effective passive infrared (abbreviated as PIR) technology. Infrared systems simply notice the difference in temperatures between your body and the surrounding air, and turn the lights on when there’s a large enough difference. Many of them can be set to ignore heat signatures below a certain threshold, to prevent pets or wild animals from turning the lights on unless you want it that way.

As for the cost, it naturally depends on the scope of your lighting system. But if you just need one light to illuminate a moderately sized area, you can easily purchase and install a system for the price of a so-so smoke alarm. The affordability of these lighting systems is such that no one should consider them out of their financial reach. If you give it some thought and consider all the advantages to a ’smart’ lighting system that knows when you need light and knows when to turn itself off, you’ll probably find that the benefits far out way the trivial expenses.