Negative Things About Motion Sensors

Flickering Lights

• Motion sensors are often installed on outdoor lights, in order to provide security at night in driveways or outside homes in case someone is trying to break in or vandalize the house. While lights are meant to illuminate and reveal anything that crosses over the motion sensor's area, they can be a bit too sensitive and unnecessarily illuminate objects on the property. These can range between small animals running through the motion sensor to branches from trees moving across the motion sensor. This will cause the light to turn on and off intermittently, wasting electricity and annoying any neighbors who can see the light.

Unnecessary Alarms

• Some motion sensors in businesses can be set off by the smallest object crossing their path and then sound an alarm to security or the business owners. This is an excellent way to prevent anyone from burglarizing a store, however it will also set the stage for a number of false alarms caused by something as small as a mouse running across the motion sensor or something falling from the ceiling and crossing the motion sensor. These false alarms can be annoying and time consuming, taking emergency officials away from important work, and possibly costing a business money in resources while investigating each alarm.

Waste of Products

• Motion sensors have also begun to be used on sinks, paper towel dispensers and soap dispensers in public bathroom areas. The idea behind this is to save money on resources and reduce the spread of germs by people touching knobs and handles with dirty hands. However, these motion sensors can malfunction and not turn off a sink or keep spraying out soap or releasing paper towels. This can cost money in repair work, waste and can often make sanitary conditions worse. Also, someone will have to be assigned to test and maintain these motion sensors on a regular basis, which may cost a business more money then it can afford.