I don’t like to waste: food, money energy — my own energy OR the kind I’m paying the power company for.
Now, I won’t name names but there is a person in this very house who you’d think is allergic to shutting off the lights for all the times I walk through the house shutting them off after she leaves for school. Oops! Did I just give someone away? 😉
Anyway…this summer when we went to visit my sister, they had these funky light switches all over their house. You’d walk into a room and the lights would magically turn on. I always shut them off when I left a room but the idea was that the lights would shut off after so many minutes with no motion in that room. Genius! (Is what I was thinking.) I was also thinking, “When we get back home I’m installing those in all the bathrooms and closets and some of the bedrooms …and maybe every single room in our house! Ha, take that “person who constantly leaves the lights on”!
Yeah, I’m a pragmatist. If something drives me crazy and I can see a way to prevent it from ever happening — I take action!
(Which is why our closet has self closing drawers. Another genius idea but that is beside the point.)
They will be an improvement in function in my home but a bonus? They’re so much prettier than the old school switches that we have now.
The light and fan control switches I installed were single pole and pretty straight forward and easy to understand. It get’s a bit more tricky when you get into 3 and 4 way switches.
My friend Brittany of Pretty Handy Girl recently wrote a tutorial with a video on how to install a 3-way Lutron occupancy sensor switch so make sure to check that out if you have a room with 2 switches that turn the light on or off.
Pretty cool! Now the lights turn on when you walk into the room and shut off after about 5 minutes of leaving. You can change the settings to fit your needs. Each switch can be programed with occupancy or a vacancy settings — for those areas where you don’t want lights turning on every time the dog runs by or when you’re sleeping at night… Perfect. So I should be spending a lot less time wasting energy: the kind I’m paying the power company for AND my own because I won’t be running through the house shutting off lights after — other people! 🙂
*This post was brought to you in partnership with Lutron’s “Who Left the Lights On” campaign. All opinions are my own.
Jen Marrs says
Light On! .. what what!!! This is awesome! Totally checking this out– great video lady!
MarieRoxanne says
My mom and dad used to have jar in the kitchen, and it would cost 25 cents if my brother or I left the light on. they had enough to go to Harvey’s one week! Yeah, not real fast learners. Ha Ha
I am planning on switching a ceiling light and am being chicken about it because I do not want to break the lights! Although I did take an electrician course so I should be able to do it with no problems… just chicken.
Darlene says
We put one of these in our storage room so the light is never left on. We have 2 walk in closets that have the light switch in the room. We replaced the switches with ones that are lit when the light is on thinking that we would be able to know that the light was on when the door closed. Not so much during the day! Once again you have made me think outside the box! I’m wondering how I can make this work for me and the “light” comes on. Move the switches into the closet! Duh! Don’t need them in the room if I don’t have to turn them on or off. Thanks!