How to Install a Motion Sensor in Your Home

Selecting the Sensor

• 1

  Survey your home and determine where you intend to put a motion sensor.

• 2

  Choose areas where an intruder is likely to go. Common locations are in a hallway or stairway.

• 3

  Remember that a passive infrared motion sensor detects heat. Eliminate spots where you must aim at heat vents, radiators, open windows where sunlight shines through, or windows where car headlights often shine through at night.

• 4

  Choose a dual technology sensor that includes both microwave and infrared elements if aiming the sensor is a problem.

• 5

  Select either a hard-wired or wireless motion sensor, which will depend on whether you have a hard-wired or wireless security system.

• 6

  Drill holes in walls and route wires in and out of walls to the control panel if you have a hard-wired system.

• 7

  Access a power source for a wireless motion sensor. Some infrared and dual technology motion sensors, however, come with a lithium battery that supplies power.

Installing the Sensor

• 8

  Gather the following tools: drill, screwdriver, screws, tools to fish wires through walls.

• 9

  Read the installation instructions that come with the sensor.

• 10

  Take into consideration the instructions and how you intend to aim the sensor.

• 11

  Mount the sensor to a wall using the drill and screws. Remember to aim a passive infrared motion sensor away from a heat source.

• 12

  Route the wire of the sensor (if it is a hard-wired sensor) along the baseboard and/or through walls to the control panel.

• 13

  Connect the wire to the proper input. If you are using a wireless motion sensor, you may only have to route a wire to a power source. If the wireless sensor also includes a lithium battery, you will not have to route any wires at all.

• 14

  Adjust the microwave element if you are using a dual-technology motion sensor that includes microwave and infrared.