How to Install a Motion Sensor in Your Home

There are two types of sensors designed to detect motion in a room of a home - a passive infrared sensor (PIR) and a dual-technology sensor, which includes passive infrared and microwave. Budget considerations will influence your choice.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Lithium Batteries
• Motion Sensor
• Electric Drill/assorted Bits
• Fish Tapes
• Multiuse Screws
• Screwdriver Sets

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.

Tips & Warnings

• If you are using a passive infrared sensor and you have to aim it where a heat source is located, you can mask the sensor so that it doesn't "see" that heat source. An infrared sensor includes a concave mirror that looks like a fly's eye - a lot of notches on it. Each notch is pointed toward a different direction, and each notch watches a particular area of the room. If a heat source is within sight of the sensor, you need to determine which notch is watching that area and mask it with electrical tape so that the sensor will no longer see the heat source.
• Some states regulate who can install home security systems. Moreover, the task requires that the do-it-yourselfer be well-skilled in electrical work. National codes concerning the electrical wiring of a home must also be taken into account.