TOPGREENER In-Wall PIR Motion Sensor Light Switch, Occupancy Sensor Switch, On/Off Override, 4A, 500W, Single Pole, Neutral Wire Required, TSOS5-W, White, 2 Pack

This product works fine, but don't buy it if you're looking for a way to save energy! I was surprised when I checked the standby power of my switch, so I emailed TopGreener technical support, who confirmed that this switch draws 384 mw of phantom power. That's about ten times more than a similar Lutron product. If you're not a techie, that means this switch would have to save 420 hours of power just to "break even" on a 60 watt light bulb. LED bulb that is comparable The bottom line is that this is an example of a poorly engineered product that uses far more energy than it should, resulting in increased global carbon emissions and higher long-term costs. As the name suggests, this TopGreener product is anything but "green. ".

Zainab Pena

| Sep 20, 2021

It does what it says on the tin, but it's far too difficult to set up. They supply "whips" (short lengths of wire that are hard wired into the switch) instead of terminals to connect the house wiring. Rather than simply plugging your wires in and tightening the screws, you'll need to pigtail and cap each of the four wires. This will increase the number of caps in your box by four. If your box isn't very big, it might be difficult to get all the wires back in. In my case, I needed to replace the box with a much larger one, which was a much more difficult task. br>br>I'm guessing they do it to save money. This product will work for you if you know you have a lot of space in your box. If not, look for one that has the necessary terminals.

Albert Kane

| Apr 19, 2021

As is customary, the advertised product information is incorrect - As stated, this does not have a full 180° detection area. Also, the sensor only appears to detect movement at about the same level as the switch, so if you have small children or are crouching down, the light will turn off without warning, which is extremely frustrating to me! br>Even *more* concerning is the fact that this is not mentioned in any of the Q&As or product information! Someone other than me, surely, should have encountered and voiced these concerns by now - right? Let me go over the issues I had with this switch in greater detail below. It's worth noting that with a little electrical know-how, the installation was practically painless. Despite the fact that I didn't read the instructions, I give the wiring effort a full thumbs up. Since it's difficult to make the installation process more complicated on a single-user computer, I'm giving it a thumbs up from me. Initially, a pole switch was used. br>br>I installed one in a master bathroom where the switch is in such a position that it turns on once you enter it, but loses line of sight when you're at the sink brushing your teeth, etc. , so I had to increase the delay time to about 2 1/2 minutes; I'm just grateful there was a way to change that setting. In general, this product performs as expected in this environment - It doesn't turn on when there's a lot of light because it detects ambient light. It'll suffice in this situation - I'm going to give it a pass here because I was able to make the best of a bad situation. The location is ideal. Let's get this party started. br>br>It was installed in the laundry room, which was a problem area. Because the switch is facing the same direction as the person who enters the room, it would be extremely useful if it had a detection range of 180 degrees. However, in my own testing, I discovered that this is more accurate to a 150° horizontal detection area, implying that I must walk 1-minute. Before it turns on, you must take two steps into the room. The switch's other major flaw is that it has a very narrow range of motion detection in terms of height, so if someone is bending down or crouching to place or retrieve clothes from the washing machine/dryer for longer than the default time of 15 seconds, the light will turn off and that person will be left in complete darkness. This is not cool, and they should have made it clear on the product page that the switch will not detect motion if someone is bending down or crouching in the room. For me, this is a significant disadvantage. br>br>Admittedly, the switch works as expected and, I suppose, saves energy, but for the laundry room, I think I'll have to set the delay time before it turns off to about a minute. This is actually inconvenient for me because most of the time we are only in there for a few seconds to grab something (we also have a coat rack), so a setting like this means it has to wait a full minute after that person has left the room before turning off the light. All of this is because it simply *cannot* detect motion below a certain height, which was not mentioned anywhere on the product page, which I believe is a major oversight, as this is one of the most important factors to consider before purchasing a motion-detecting device. the detection of a light switch br>br>The manual ON/OFF option was a nice touch, but I'm not sure I want to use it every time I plan to do activities where the switch doesn't detect any motion, like bending or sitting down - As far as I understand it, if I manually turn it "on" whenever I'm going to be in the room for an extended period of time and can't rely on motion detection alone, I have to remember to turn it back to "auto" every time I leave the room, right? To me, that appears to be an inconvenient feature in and of itself. br>br>Overall, the switch was simple to set up and appears to function properly (at least for the time being). However, there are two areas where this switch fell short for me: (1) I would have greatly appreciated a heads-up message; and (2) I would have greatly appreciated a heads-up message. (2) I would have appreciated a note somewhere saying that it fails to detect any motion from a person lower than 5 feet, or someone who would be crouching or bent down below that minimum height of detection, as none of the Q/A's or reviews seemed to mention that, and (3) I would have appreciated a note somewhere saying that it fails to detect any motion from a person lower than 5 feet, etc. , as none of the Q/A's or reviews seemed to mention that. br>br>As far as motion sensing is concerned, I suppose it does its job adequately. However, be wary of the deceptive and negligent advertising that fails to explain some of the product's most serious flaws! Things like this should be better explained, or put in big, bold letters somewhere so that a potential buyer can see them, especially since this product may not be fully refundable. This is definitely cheesy marketing, and it easily took away a star for it. Also, the manual ON/OFF option wasn't particularly useful to me in the end; it was actually more convenient to set the delay-time instead. change the time to something longer, like a minute or two. I haven't experimented with any of the other motion-based exercises. brands of detection light switch, but after the shoddy and misleading marketing that I discovered with this product, I might reconsider for future purchases. br>br>UPDATE (5/23), br>br> br>The TIME setting dial is inconvenient and does not work as expected, but I wasn't surprised by this design flaw because this is also a sub-par product. In terms of motion detection alone, this product is on par with the competition. The pause- The switch's off setting appears to jump from 15 seconds to 30 seconds almost instantly. (a few seconds after the TEST setting) to 1 minute 30 sec. There is no easy way to adjust in the middle. To set the delay, I had to fiddle around with the dial for nearly an hour (if you can believe that). 30 seconds has been shaved off It took a lot of trial and error for me to figure out what worked and what didn't. It took a lot of trial and error to get the TIME setting to the sweet spot where it turns off the light after the desired period of no motion detection. I already knew this was going to be a problematic product, and the dial issue only adds to the list of features that were poorly designed to begin with. br>br>Overall, a good switch for the price, but I'm sure there are better options out there - I mean, there has to be, right? Regardless, my search for a functional motion sensor switch and home improvements continues.

Stormi Jennings

| Nov 23, 2021

I bought these switches because they were the only ones I could find with the features I needed: a manual ON switch so that if I was working in the shop with power tools, I wouldn't accidentally Luke Skywalker myself with a power saw because the lights turned off at an inconvenient time (the workshop is separated from the sensor by a wall). br>br>Overall, these switches are less expensive than other switches and are simple to set up. The lack of a neutral wire isn't a problem, and the black-and-red pass through (or black-and-black if you're interrupting a wire with a switch in a "regular" outlet) is simple to understand and install. It was extremely responsive to motion in the garage, as well as in the laundry room, where it energizes both humans and cats. br>br>I strongly advise you to make this change. br>br>The only caveat is that, in my experience, these detector switches are all uniformly deep. To fit it in, you'll need a relatively empty receptacle box that's tightly packed. You may need to repack the box if the person who wired the receptacle just jammed in a bunch of wires and didn't fold/twine them properly. Mine had been a disaster. So, with some packing and a power-up, It fit in both receptacles just fine, thanks to the drill.

Remi Woodard

| Jan 27, 2021