What Consumes More Power?
 

ok. i've got motion sensored lights on the front and side of my house...they appear to be too sensitive so they go off everytime a car drives by or even if the bushes move. does the constant on/off of these lights consume power? OR the alternative is to switch them off and manually turn on the potlights around the house using energy saving Compact flourescent bulbs and just turn them on once during evening and shut them off during the daytime. (of course, i'll probably forget to do this from time to time)

OR should I disable motion sensor and let it turn auto on/off during dusk dawn and put in the compact flourescent bulbs.

Why not turn down the sensitivity on the motion sensor, and use those energy efficient bulbs?

Moved as this forum is more appropriate.

the on / off doesn't comsume power. the on does...

You can also tape parts of the sensor so it covers less area.

On/off consumes significantly less power.

Turn down the sensitivity, re-aim the sensor or tape part off if its annoying.

Well, since CFLs use like 20% of the power that regular bulbs use, if your lights are turning on for more than 20% of the night, then arguably replacing them with CFLs and leaving them on all night could use less power...

The life of light bulbs do get reduced the more they are turned on and off... but it won't draw more power by doing so.

One thing you need to know is nearly all motion sensing fixtures for outdoors do not work with CFL bulbs. Unless the bulbs have magnetic ballasts, which is harder to find because the are large, pink tint, flickers and slow. So if you want CFL flood outdoors, there is a good chance you need to replace the whole fixture.

CFLs have poor performance at temperatures during our winters, it takes longer to warm up. Chances are even if you manage to find a fixture that works with CFLs, the CFLs, won't reach full brightness when the event is over (which makes them rather useless IMO).

Motion sensing fixtures have parasitic draw of a few hundred mA. (The newer draws less of course). It keeps drawing power 24/7. It is a cost benefit calculation.

An alternative is to replace your current On/Off switch with a programmable timer switch, which only turns the motion sensing light at your pre programmed time period.

Personally for outside floodlights, I go quartz (as bright as possible) and put on a timer to reduce false positives.

The on and off of CFLs will shorten the life of the bulb more in comparison to an incandescent bulb. They also take a minute to reach warm up to get bright, even more so in cold weather.

Maybe consider getting a switch timer or a photocell for your outdoor pots.

You may also try LED bulbs, which I do not recommend for good flood lighting, but the energy savings will be crazy! But, you'll end up spending an arm and a leg on bulbs. :P

Techno pimp it up with induction lighting.

The use of CFL's is kinda useless because it takes a while for the light bulb to get bright enough to be efficiently used as a spot light for your motion sensors. As everyone else said just reaim the lights. I think leaving yoru computer on at hoem uses more electricity.

re-aim and turn down sensitivity of sensor