Who left the lights on (again)?

 I participated in a campaign about “who left the lights on”on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Lutron. I received product samples to facilitate my review as well as a promotional item as a thank-you for participating.

If you live with someone- anyone, chances are, like me, you’ve asked “Who left the lights on?” a time or two.  Or in my case, one hundred and eleventy billion times (each week).  If you have small children, you might ask it as much as me.  It’s pretty amazing just how often kids can leave lights on, given the number of hours they do not spend in the house when they are playing outside or at school. (It’s equally amazing how infrequently they flush toilets, but that’s a conversation we can have another day). To say this is frustrating, not to mention costly, is an understatement. 

I spend a lot of time asking “Who left the lights on” (and really, it’s always in a pleasant, even-toned manner. You know).  and following my littles around turning lights off after them.  Why?  If you know kids, you know that their immediate answer is “not me!”

Well, NOT ME doesn’t live here. I’m sure he (or she) is fun to play with, but all this little friend does is leave lights on, doors open, packaging open and never flush the toilet. So I’m not sure I’d want NOT ME to live here even if I did find a way to see the magical elfin being for myself.

Given that this little stinker “Not Me” doesn’t exist except to take the blame for things done all around the world, I’m taking matters into my own hands.

I guess you could say I already did, when I turned off lights left on.

But I’m going a step further. I’ve installed a motion sensor light switch.

Works with all  kinds of light bulbs (which is good since we have one of every kind ever produced, like ever, in the basement)

Senses daylight and only turns on when needed.

Now, I was going to put this into my son’s room because he’s the worst turning-the-light-off remember-er in the house.  But then I remembered, his light is also a ceiling fan and if the light shuts off, the fan shuts off, and he could be hot in his room.  Not fair.  So I went with the next light with the highest frequency of being left on.  The light in the dining room above the table.

The Maestro Occupancy Switch is also available with as the Maestro Occupancy Sensor CL Dimmer (which we don’t have, but maybe someday?)

This is a GREAT product concept. People forget to turn lights off, they go off automatically.  People walk into the room, light goes on automatically.  Imagine all of the dollars you can save if you have this in the rooms you find lights left on the most?  I’m thinking the bathrooms and living room in our house, and also the hallway light upstairs.  That’ll be a big help, especially if the kids get up in the middle of the night.  One of them isn’t too much a fan of the dark, so having that light go on as you step into the hallway will be really great (and safe) for everyone!

It’s just that I probably should wait a week or so before I ask my husband to HELP me re-install the Maestro where  it won’t be on a 3 way switch.  Thankfully he agrees with me that it’s a great idea and we’re both looking forward to seeing how it works.
A few notes about installation:
1.  Read the instructions.

Read the instructions again to make sure that you are not Brett Martin and you aren’t trying to install this on a 3-way-switch.  It won’t work.  I mean, the light will work, and YAY! but the whole 3 way thing won’t work and chances are, your spouse won’t be too happy at having to fix that 3 way light switch in your 75+ year old house…

2. After you’ve read the instructions and NOT done what I did, you can make sure you have all of the tools required to finish the job, a flashlight for just in case, and all of your parts for the switch laid out in front of you. You’re going to need a screwdriver, electrical tape, and some needle nose pliers.

3. Proceed to follow the instructions carefully.

I was pretty impressed both with how easy the instructions were to understand AND how easily I could follow along.  That says something because I am clearly not an electrical genius (if you missed why, see above) and also, our house is 75+ years old with the 75+ year old wiring still in place in some areas…including this switch. I could still successfully connect the wires all by myself.  It took less than half an hour from start to finish.  (I did them correctly, I just sort of didn’t  stop to think about  notice  the whole “3 way switch” detail). I was pretty proud of my handiwork. I still kind of am.

4. Watch your savings grow.

I think the Lutron line can also double a little bit as a security measure- if someone’s trying to sneak into  your house, a light going on when they walk into a room is definitely going to stop them in their tracks and make them think twice about staying!  Mostly, Lutron switches offer a great way to help you to ensure that your hard earned dollars aren’t being spent on lights left on when not in use!  Practical and ingenius- as soon as I’m out of the doghouse I plan to get a few more for some other lights in the house.

Want to check out a Maestro Occupancy/Vacancy Sensor Switch for your house?

25% off Maestro occupancy/vacancy sensor dimmers and switches on LutronStore.com PLUS one free Claro single-gang wallplate ($4.90 suggested list price) with each qualifying item.

Promo Code: wholeftthelightson

          Code expiration date: Sunday, Oct. 31, 2013(subject to change)

You may be wondering why I decided to share what really happened during the installation process.  I don’t want nor intend to lie to anyone on this site. I’m real. This is me, for good and for bad.  I screwed up.  Had I not been sick over the weekend, we might have had time to re-install this switch, but no one felt superb in this house and I had a fever for almost the whole weekend. SO…it got delayed until today. Since my husband took the switch OUT for me to get the dining room light working properly (and safely, I might add) I wasn’t able to get a video review of the whole process. The few minutes I enjoyed it, it was fabulous.  But I’ll be updating again in a month or two and I’ll give you a much less OOPS report on how things are going and what we’ve noticed about leaving lights on.

**Update***

Video of install!! It’s here!