Why Is My Outdoor Security Light Staying On?

Installing a security light is a great way to keep your home and family safe. Statistically, robberies are much less likely to occur in a home that is well lit, but if your motion detector is staying on at all hours, it’ll not only jack up the price of your electrical bill—it may also have the opposite effect on your home security. If the lights outside a home are consistently lit, it indicates that no one is there and burglars may not feel deterred any longer.

Why is your outdoor light staying on at all hours, and how do you fix it so it can actually do its job? If you’re trying to figure this out, you’ve come to the right place. We’ll uncover the issue you’re having and whether or not you’ll need to seek professional help to resolve it.

There are a few possible causes for outdoor lights staying on at all hours, including storm damage, faulty installation, age and changes in their settings. Sometimes these are problems you can fix on your own.

Improper settings

The first thing to check when facing this issue is that your settings are properly set. If you didn’t choose the right ones when you installed your security lights, you may be paying the price now—literally. Here are some things to check before you call a professional electrician for help:

• High sensitivity settings: If you have high sensitivity settings on, your lights could be triggered by things as small as leaves blowing by or a speck of dirt settling on your sensors.
• Long duration settings: Most motion detectors are set to turn off about 30 seconds after they’re triggered, but if your settings are off, they may be staying on much longer than that.
• Auto-on: Sometimes a motion detector’s auto-on feature gets stuck or malfunctions, forcing your lights to stay on at times when you don’t want them to be. Check to be sure this setting is off and functioning properly.

Reset motion detector

If your settings aren’t the source of your problem, try resetting your motion detector altogether and see if that remedies the situation. Unplug the motion light for a full 10 seconds, and then plug it back in. As simple as it seems, forcing the motion detector to reset could help resolve an unknown issue and allow the sensors to function as they’re designed to.

Call a professional

Once you’ve exhausted all these DIY options, it’s time to call in an expert to figure out why your motion detector stays on. The issue causing all your trouble could be a defect with the motion detector unit itself, or you may be experiencing a larger electricity problem that requires professional help. Until you have an electrician out to inspect it, you won’t know for sure. When you’re ready to consult an expert, contact the knowledgeable team at Wilkinson Electric Inc. We’ll help determine the exact source of the problem and resolve it as quickly as possible.

Categorised in: Residential Electrician

This post was written by Writer