Leviton Wireless Infrared Occupancy Sensors
Aug. 28, 2009 —We can still hear our parents' voices, ringing in our ears: "Turn off the light when you leave a room!" Who knew they were so ecologically ahead of their time? What with rising energy costs and the whole, y'know, let's-not-destroy-the-environment thing, it's more prudent than ever for buildings not to waste electricity by having common areas like laundry rooms or
maintenance corridors lit up when no one's using them.
The solution most often touted? Motion detectors or similar devices that keep the lights off or merely dimmed in a room until someone actually walks in. But that often means doing a retrofit involving a lot of expensive rewiring and plastering. Oh, if only there were a wireless way to go about it....
Leviton, the 103-year-old manufacturing giant of wiring devices, has, ironically, just such a wireless device. Its model WSC04-I0W and model WSC15-I0W wireless infrared occupancy sensors respond to human body heat in movement, and in conjunction with the company's wireless wall-switch receiver and wireless self-powered remote switch, turns lights on and off automatically.
The battery-operated sensors — which cover 450 and 1,500 square feet, respectively — are ceiling-mounted, with no additional wiring required, and each has a solar cell that draws on available room light to power itself for up to 48 hours on its own. A multi-zone optical lens establishes dozens of zones of detection, which you can configure to block out things like outside hallway traffic.
And we know these sensors, which online retailers such as OneStopBuy.com sell for about $150 each, would make our parents proud. Or at least satisfied that if we do forget to turn out the light, that now they don't have to go in and do it for us.
Leviton LMS • 20497 SW Teton Avenue, Tualatin, Ore. 97062 • (503) 404-5500 • toll-free 800-736-6682 • E-mail contact page here