Lights always left on in basement
We’re building a basement rec room with 40 halogen lights, and I’m concerned that the lights are going to be left on overnight. Can anyone recommend a product that addresses this issue? I thought of motion sensors, but I’m not sure how that would work, plus we have a cat. Any advice would be appreciated.
We’re building a basement rec room with 40 halogen lights, and I’m concerned that the lights are going to be left on overnight. Can anyone recommend a product that addresses this issue?
I thought of motion sensors, but I’m not sure how that would work, plus we have a cat. Any advice would be appreciated.
Mike, do you have a PC that is on all the time? If so you could use the addressable X-10 type switches, but not program them to turn off automatically. These switches will tell you if they are on using the PC software. I’m only familiar with the Linux variants, like LinuxMCE which can run on low power PCs, but there are probably Windows programs that do the same thing. There may or may not be similar OSX programs.
BTW I’m not a fan of the X-10 company, they do a lot of spamming, but Leviton and others make products using the same and similar protocols.
Please don’t be so rude.
As all parents know, kids (even teens) don’t remember such things. Added reminders don’t help.
As for the timer, what I meant to say was that it will not work because I have no set schedule for the basement use. Thus, the timer could go off and someone could be downstairs caught in the dark.
The space is two flights down from my bedroom. Again, I think a monitor would be most helpful. That way, if the lights ARE on, I can go down to see if it’s by accident.
uhh, why not tell your kids to shut the lights off when they leave the room? if they are old enough to play down there unsupervised, i assume they are old enough to learn how to turn off the lights.
you want to put in a timer device to avoid inconveniencing your kids?
this post makes no sense.
Thanks Daniel K, that was very helpful. I wish the LED technology were more mature.
Do you think it’s worth taking another look at fluorescents? Are we doing something regrettably un-green by using halogens? The space is very important to us, so I don’t want something too ugly or institutional. It’s an unfair question, but I’d like to know your basic opinion.
As for the lights being left on… Has anyone ever seen anything like a light monitor? I’m looking for something portable (almost like a baby monitor) that will tell me what lights are on downstairs. I would then go and turn them off myself.
A timer might leave me in the dark by surprise. A PC might do the same. It’s a hassle to make the trip to turn them off, but at least a machine won’t be leaving anyone in the dark. It’s an easy problem to state, but a hard one to solve.
Two ideas:
Use a timer, there are light switches that have a timer. These are available from Home Depot and Lowes, and will stay on for up to 30 minutes after you turn them on. I think these are in the lighting isle not the electrical isle in these shops.
Use a X-10 or similar home control system. You use computer adressable light switches, and then you have a master computer somewhere in the house that turn off all the addressable lights at a certain time, or when you hit the ‘all lights off’ button. The master computer is a small plug in device that run on 3-5 watts and has a serial port or usb port for programming it from your PC.
As for the lights, there aren’t any CFL’s that will replace the halogens right now (you would need a different lighting design). But the technology exists to use high efficiency LEDs to provide the same type of lighting, there just aren’t any UL approved assemblies at the moment because they are too expensive for the North American market; the only thing available are some low efficiency LED assemblies. In a few years this situation should change.
FYI White light LEDs actually use a blue LED with phosphors to create white light, just like CFLs. The blue LED was invented just a few years and the technology is still maturing. Plus, due to patents there is limited production so much of the capacity is used for much higher price point items like the single blue laser in a BlueRay player or the little blue power lights you see everywhere these days. Once the base patent expires in about a decade or so you will see these in lighting everywhere.
Thanks for the posts. To clarify… I have children. They don’t always remember to turn lights off when they come upstairs for bed.
This will be for a private home, to duplex the basement and first floor for my family.
Does someone out there have a favorite flourscent light and fixture for such an application? We’re using many 55 Watt 3inch halo lights. I love the look, but I would also like to conserve energy.
I am assuming it’s too late to change your mind about the halogen lights? Besides the energy cost to operate 40 lights i would expect the heat to be significant even with low voltage transformers. The future is flourescent energy saving systems. That said you could use a timer wall switch, Motion detectors work well to turn the lights on in hallway aplications. I am guessing this is for a condo or coop? Your electrician should have plenty of suggestions for you.
I don’t understand. Why not just turn the lights off when you are not in the room? Can you explain the situation more clearly? Thank you.