I am planning to equip a new house that I am building with Z Wave. I have Insteon in my present house but decided to move to Z Wave in my next house to get access to a broader device list and gain the ability to test lock states, garage door states, etc.
One rather large issue I am running into is finding a Z Wave motion detector for occupancy use. I plan to use separate motion detectors for security. The ones for security will be dual technology, hard wired units to my ELK M1G controller. For the motion lighting units, I want to use Z Wave wireless units to allow them to be moved and placed exactly where needed. Of the Z Wave units that do provide enough spec details, most have a fixed delay from "Last motion to off" of about 4 minutes. The insteon units have an adjustable delay starting at 30 seconds and going up to hours. 4 minutes is too long for areas like the master bedroom where I use a detector mounted upside down to only sense motion when someone is standing such as getting up during the night to go to the bathroom. I set them all to 30 seconds and then use an ELK program command triggered by the OFF from the Insteon detector to keep the light on longer if needed. The bedroom night time sense gets a total of 40 seconds(time enough to get comfortable in bed), the garage gets a total of 3 minutes, the kitchen and hallways get a total of 2 minutes including the 30 seconds the Insteon needs plus the time added by the ELK program statements.
Most of the Z Wave detectors also have lock out periods that cause them to ignore any motion triggers during the "lock out after off" delay period which is a security detector type feature and would render them unusable as occupancy sensors. This will cause a room to be dark during the lockout unless you added to the already too long "delay to off" by using an ELK statement to even further extend the time the light stays on after last motion.
Does anyone know of a Z Wave motion detector that has adjustable "Last Motion To Off Countdown" and "No Lockout Delay After Off"? Beyond that, it needs to be one that works. I realize that the shorter times will cause more transmissions and shorten battery life but that trade off is acceptable to have detectors that provide the flexibility to do what is needed.
One rather large issue I am running into is finding a Z Wave motion detector for occupancy use. I plan to use separate motion detectors for security. The ones for security will be dual technology, hard wired units to my ELK M1G controller. For the motion lighting units, I want to use Z Wave wireless units to allow them to be moved and placed exactly where needed. Of the Z Wave units that do provide enough spec details, most have a fixed delay from "Last motion to off" of about 4 minutes. The insteon units have an adjustable delay starting at 30 seconds and going up to hours. 4 minutes is too long for areas like the master bedroom where I use a detector mounted upside down to only sense motion when someone is standing such as getting up during the night to go to the bathroom. I set them all to 30 seconds and then use an ELK program command triggered by the OFF from the Insteon detector to keep the light on longer if needed. The bedroom night time sense gets a total of 40 seconds(time enough to get comfortable in bed), the garage gets a total of 3 minutes, the kitchen and hallways get a total of 2 minutes including the 30 seconds the Insteon needs plus the time added by the ELK program statements.
Most of the Z Wave detectors also have lock out periods that cause them to ignore any motion triggers during the "lock out after off" delay period which is a security detector type feature and would render them unusable as occupancy sensors. This will cause a room to be dark during the lockout unless you added to the already too long "delay to off" by using an ELK statement to even further extend the time the light stays on after last motion.
Does anyone know of a Z Wave motion detector that has adjustable "Last Motion To Off Countdown" and "No Lockout Delay After Off"? Beyond that, it needs to be one that works. I realize that the shorter times will cause more transmissions and shorten battery life but that trade off is acceptable to have detectors that provide the flexibility to do what is needed.