Individual pir fluorescent pir

amo · Oct 9, 2014

Hi guys

Went to see a job today in a block of flats. It has 60 5ft fluorescent double tubes on 24/7. As you can imagine the owner had a heart attack when he got the bill.

The stairways and entrances are to be kept on permanently but the lights leading to the flats he wants to be pir controlled.

There are 2 circuits, one for entrance and ground floor and one for 2nd and 3rd floor.

We want 23 of the tube lights to be controlled individually without much disruption to the cabling as its all galvanised conduit in concrete ceilings.

I have seen : http://www.luxomat.com/en/pdf/en/Katalogseite LR1 -BEG UK A4.pdf. This wont do the job I don't think.

Does anyone know of any clip on the fitting types?

Many thanks

telectrix · Oct 9, 2014

PIRs don't like fluorescents. you could end up with a massive headache. i'd be inclined to think about LED fittings.

Plonker 3 · Oct 9, 2014

I have seen in areas like this before fluorescant fittings with a built in PIR where the lights stay on permanatly but very dim and then when somemone is in the vicintiy it operates upto full brightness.

shanky887614 · Oct 9, 2014

telectrix said:
PIRs don't like fluorescents. you could end up with a massive headache. i'd be inclined to think about LED fittings.

have a look into 5ft led fittinga and led tubes

the tubes are not cheap and a good chance you might need to tweak them for some led's to work

you need to change the starter on most though

[ElectriciansForums.net] Individual pir fluorescent pir

Darkwood · Oct 9, 2014

Im fitting some PL modular fitting with inbuilt sensors that as Dilb says dims down when ambient light increases or no one about and brightens up when you enter, they don't burn the lamps out even if switching frequently as they are warm started to protect lamp life but be costly option although returns are good once you have had payback in savings.

Richard Burns · Oct 9, 2014

Danlers (and I am sure Luxomat) do batten mounted PIR sensors of both the dimming and switching types they should not suffer if you are switching one fitting.

The manufacturers of course do not see any problems!

I had not seen the clip on ones before, but seem OK as an idea, I suppose.
Really if you can just find small sensors even microwave ones may be good that can be fitted to the fitting then you should be OK.

The problem you would have is if you wanted to control sections of lighting rather than individual fittings.

However the cost of individual sensors will mount up!

Guest77 · Oct 9, 2014

amo said:
Hi guys

Went to see a job today in a block of flats. It has 60 5ft fluorescent double tubes on 24/7. As you can imagine the owner had a heart attack when he got the bill.

The stairways and entrances are to be kept on permanently but the lights leading to the flats he wants to be pir controlled.

There are 2 circuits, one for entrance and ground floor and one for 2nd and 3rd floor.

We want 23 of the tube lights to be controlled individually without much disruption to the cabling as its all galvanised conduit in concrete ceilings.

I have seen : http://www.luxomat.com/en/pdf/en/Katalogseite LR1 -BEG UK A4.pdf. This wont do the job I don't think.

Does anyone know of any clip on the fitting types?

Many thanks

It would be cheaper to install 23 robus 24 watt led microwave round surface lights in place of the 5ft battens, I estimate you could do the job for 2.5k plus vat, the lights have a 5 year warrenty, they will probably last 10 years, the wattage would be half that of the flourescents and they individually switch on and off making them fit for purpose, JMO.

amo · Oct 10, 2014

Thanks for the replies guys. The guy in question doesn't want to spend money on getting new fittings, his budget could stretch to sensors.
He wants as little disruption and us to be in and out to keep labour costs down.

typical landlord. I was looking at the Luxomat. Seems like could order one to try out and see how that goes. I did explain to him with pirs switching on and off will affect the life of the tube and fittings but because a housing association looks after it he's not to bothered.

i did say go for updating the lights. You can get eterna round bulkheads with microwave sensor,emergency light all led for under 50 a piece.

Richard Burns · Oct 10, 2014

amo said:
Thanks for the replies guys. The guy in question doesn't want to spend money on getting new fittings, his budget could stretch to sensors.
He wants as little disruption and us to be in and out to keep labour costs down.

typical landlord. I was looking at the Luxomat. Seems like could order one to try out and see how that goes. I did explain to him with pirs switching on and off will affect the life of the tube and fittings but because a housing association looks after it he's not to bothered.

i did say go for updating the lights. You can get eterna round bulkheads with microwave sensor,emergency light all led for under 50 a piece.

You can get a cheap PIR light for £30 (non EM), the PIR sensors for battens will be about £50; so which is cheaper?

For the Pirs just make sure the on time is a few minutes to reduce on off on off effects.