My receptacles and switches arent located in good positions for motion sensors. I was constantly having the motion sensor turn the lights off on me while working in the shop and I seemed to keep finding the lights on when no one was inside.
My work around was to add a home automation controller with zwave and Zigbee communications. You can buy a controller or roll your own. I went with Home Assistant running on a raspberry pi SBC because I can run this WITHOUT an active internet connection. I dont recommend any home automation system the REQUIRES internet to work as they are slow, unresponsive, and I dont like the idea of insecure devices spying on my network.
I have a wall mounted motion sensor switch running zwave at one entrance and a zigbee battery operated motion sensor monitoring a different area in the shop. No more false positives or false negatives and the lights are on when I need them. I also have a few plug in zwave receptacles so I can control some other lights and devices based on motion and schedule.
Ive found these work well
Leviton DZPA1-2BW Decora Smart Plug-in Outlet with Z-Wave Technology, White, Repeater/Range Extender - - Amazon.com
There is cheaper stuff out there in the market, but I lean towards trusting the Leviton brand NOT to burn my house down over no name chinesium models...this particular model is easy to pair and is reliable. Older models don’t pair nicely.
My work around was to add a home automation controller with zwave and Zigbee communications. You can buy a controller or roll your own. I went with Home Assistant running on a raspberry pi SBC because I can run this WITHOUT an active internet connection. I dont recommend any home automation system the REQUIRES internet to work as they are slow, unresponsive, and I dont like the idea of insecure devices spying on my network.
I have a wall mounted motion sensor switch running zwave at one entrance and a zigbee battery operated motion sensor monitoring a different area in the shop. No more false positives or false negatives and the lights are on when I need them. I also have a few plug in zwave receptacles so I can control some other lights and devices based on motion and schedule.
Ive found these work well
Leviton DZPA1-2BW Decora Smart Plug-in Outlet with Z-Wave Technology, White, Repeater/Range Extender - - Amazon.com
There is cheaper stuff out there in the market, but I lean towards trusting the Leviton brand NOT to burn my house down over no name chinesium models...this particular model is easy to pair and is reliable. Older models don’t pair nicely.
