Using Motion Sensors As Occupancy Sensors

[ccmichaelson]

Does anyone have "real" experience using hard-wired motion sensors (attached to the Elk M1) as occupancy sensors (e.g. lighting control)?  I'm about to pre-wire my house and I'd love to dual-purpose my motion sensors for both alarm (when the system is armed) and lighting control (e.g. turn on the light when motion detected and then turn off after X minutes of no motion).
 
Thanks!

 

[Del91574]

They'll work great for security but poorly for occupancy. Nature of the beast and design of the units. What works great for security (high discrimination) is poor to drive anything but a basic occupancy (IE:3-4 pulse count before triggering which equates to similar in the amount of steps before triggering).

 

[ccmichaelson]

They'll work great for security but poorly for occupancy. Nature of the beast and design of the units. What works great for security (high discrimination) is poor to drive anything but a basic occupancy (IE:3-4 pulse count before triggering which equates to similar in the amount of steps before triggering).

So would my occupancy sensors be hard wired into my elk and trigger lighting when appropriate or would I need to purchase either Insteon or Z-wave sensors to control lights? It's a shame there isn't a sensor that would trigger early for occupancy but not an alarm until it was sure...

 

[fcwilt]

Your best bet is to install occupancy sensors as needed. 
 
They can wire to your ELK much like your motion sensors do.

 

[BaduFamily]

I've used motion sensors, via the house M1, to control interior lighting.
 
However it's for a specific use case.
 
the in-ceiling / hidden motions are mounted in hallways.
 
If motion is detected late at night in the hallways dimmed LED lighting goes on in the stairwell and in the kitchen baseboards.
 
This is done via custom node.js code watching the M1 state and talking to the vantage lighting controller.
 
additionally there is a vantage rule which kills these 'navigation' lights at dawn.