Pantry Switching

Any suggestions as to the most cost effective way to automatically switch lights on/off in a Pantry and Walk in Robe using CBus?

I was going to use 5751L but am now wondering if using 5420's with the minder would be the smart way to do it?

 

If your alarm panel deals with realy outputs, such as a challenger, then you can use any alarm PIR do double as a motion function in lighting.

However, using a C-Bus PIR is far more effective as you have presets and can trim various delays. You can also limit activation by light level.

Bear in mind that in a smart home it is useful to consider the following occupancy sensor placements.

- bathroom
- walk in storage
- laundry
- garage
- long corridors

If you need control over functions and conditions / parameters then dont use an alarm system.

 

I have looked at some of your other suggestions over cost in some of the other threads.

May I suggest you start with the most expensive configuration on paper first and then cut it back to what you can live with first.

That way you will know what you are deleting and what compromises you are making for the money you are saving.

When you do it by ADDING cost it tends to becoming time consuming and painful. The reason being that I love features and some people love money and never the twain shall meet.

(hence the reason why my car has 10 airbags).

 

cost v benefits

Thanks for the replies guys.

I agree that benefits are the clincher but I was unsure if anyones experience suggested that there was any benefit in the basic movement dectector over the occupancy sensor for a pantry or walk in robe.

I will be using the o/s in the passage and above the stairs to ensure the benefits can be utilised.

 

If you have minder why not use a simple reed switch, well at least for the Pantry. The WIR might need a PIR if it is large enough, but if it is a smallish one like I have again a reed switch as you would never want to lock yourself inside and its good encourgemant to shut the door once you have finished. Having said that my WIR is controlled from a switch with a 2.5 minute timer, or on/off on long press.

 

reed switch it is

Good call for the pantry. Sometimes the easiest answers are the ones we overlook.

WIR I will need to run with a pir so will do the cheaper version given there is no benefit in going for the C-Bus one in that application.

 

For what its worth, I used c-bus PIR sensors in all the walk-in robes and pantry. In the walk-in robes, the lights are on dimmer channels.
In the pantry, the lights are on a relay channel.

In the WIRs, the lamps ramp up in half a second or so, and ramp down over about 10 seconds. This is convenient, as when returning to bed in the middle of the night, there is some light to see by, and it "fades out" nicely rather than suddenly going out.

Given my time again, I would *NOT* put the pantry on relay, I'd use a dimmer simply because of the ability to ramp on and off (less thermal shock) but mainly because if you're in there and stopped to think or look or read something, it would be nice to have the light fade out rather than just plunge you into darkness! I could extend the timeout, but whats there now is great 99% of the time.

As others have said - its also "nice" being able to adjust the light level so it won't turn on if the ambient light is high enough to see by already - a feature you probably can't do with an alarm panel based solution.

 

Panty Switching

Correct me if I am wrong but using a movement detector via an alarm panel type device that communicates with C-Bus would not limit the ramping options because it is in effect a switch The ramping therefore becomes logic. The Movement Detectors also have ambient light sensors so I guess the answer is pretty clear.

 

Depends how you interface the "just a switch" into the cbus I guess.

In my case, the ramp commands were generated by the c-bus PIR.

I guess you could have ambient light sensors in your alarm PIRs, and put signs up outside asking intruders NOT to break in during the day...