Can You Protect An External Metal Door With A PIR If The Door Receives Direct Sunlight?
Can You Protect An External Metal Door With A PIR – This is a good question. Protecting entry ways of metal sheds that receive direct sunlight at any time of the day can create false alarm issues, especially if there are trees moving on the far side of the detection zone when it’s windy.
I’d like to tell you that by dialling PIR sensitivity right down you can resolve these issues, but it hasn’t worked for me yet. I’ve also tried angling the sensor further away from the metal shed in hopes this will eliminate false alarms caused by thermal emanations, but that has not worked yet, either.
There’s no question these issues relate to heat or light triggering the sensor during the morning in our case, because we don’t have the same issues at night – the sensor is rock solid as soon as the sun moves off the metal and it remains solid all through the night before generating false alarms again at about 8.30am in the morning. Wind is a key element in this equation – less wind, fewer false alarm events.
SEN’s advice would be to cover a slightly different approach to the shed keeping the metal out of the detection zone. We say this with a degree of anguish because having a detection zone that envelopes the area you want to protect is the gold standard, in our opinion.
But before moving to cover new approaches we’d consider mounting the sensor with its back to the sun or we’d try adding a deep custom sunshade – maybe it’s strong direct light that’s triggering our PIR and yours, rather than thermal signatures. If that fails, reversing the sensor’s angle of detection could be the trick. If all else fails, cover the approach, not the entry.
You can find an excellent dual technology sensor that is not triggered by the sun here or read more SEN news here.
“Can You Protect An External Metal Door With A PIR If The Door Receives Direct Sunlight?”
