The way past your motion detector.

It almost seems that a motion detector has found its place in every house these days. He is also practical in his function. The door lock is easier to find and prevents you from stumbling over a step when entering or exiting. But you can also use it to scare off unwelcome guests. A product with many faces. You can get simple models in hardware stores for as little as 10 euros. Installation is easy and there are many different versions. With a battery, or controlled by smartphone, integrated into a Hue network from Philips or also from Bosch, you will find a series.

 

Do you also go hiking in the evening or just go out with the dog again to do something for your health after a long or boring day? Nice welcome to the club. That's how it is for many people day in and day out in Germany and elsewhere in the world. On my way I noticed the following. Although you are still far away from the entrances and are on main paths or public paths, the lights are constantly on. At a distance of 200m there is an area where the motion detector hits 8x. But also something like that. Of course, if you want to do something good for your electricity seller, you don't have to change anything. So this little story hides a little idea that allows motion detector owners to get an overview of how great the potential is if you pull the trigger and extrapolate this problem to an entire country.

 

First of all you have to ask yourself, was the motion detector installed by someone else, i.e. by an external service provider, or was the proud husband who acts as a craftsman the superstar. Only you can know how and who. If you have bought a motion detector with a swiveling head, it is easy to fix the problem yourself. You can stand too far in front of the door and simulate others walking by. The motion detector shouldn't go on just because someone is walking by on the sidewalk. That's what the street light, or also called lantern light, is for. After a few back and forth and toggles on and off, the problem should be resolved.

 

If you don't have a motion detector yet, you can pay attention to it. A pivoting head and a sensor that triggers the light of a better quality should be installed. A timer is also important. It can usually be set manually with a coin to suit individual needs. Should it be on for 1 minute, 2 minutes or better 3 minutes when Aunt Trude comes home with the walker.

So far so good. Also tell your neighbors about this simple story, they will probably also have a motion detector that is set too generously.

 

After a few facts, now come a few numbers and key data.

In Germany there are 1 million streets and about 40 million households.

My example is based on an estimate. In every street there are 100 motion detectors that are falsely triggered 3x per night. Triggered by passers-by. On average, a light is 2min. on in my bill. A light consumes 1 watt. So that makes 3 watts per motion detector per night. Now we have 100 per street, which makes 300 watts. In my calculation I only included 10% of all roads. That doesn't mean 1 million streets but 100000 streets (100K). In 100,000 streets there are also 100 motion detectors.

In numbers to keep it short:

3 watts per light x 100 per street x 100,000 streets = 30,000 kw x €0.30 = €9,000 per day and per night. €9,000 x 30 days makes €270,000 per month x 12 months makes €3.24 million. In the CO2 balance it looks like this:

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This creates an additional burden of 1082.7 tons of emissions per month.

Per year = 12,992.4 tons of emissions.

(The resources used to produce the electricity are based on a third energy mix.)

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If a third of all households have a pure eco electricity seller, i.e. from water, wind or sun, then the balance is of course much better. Incidentally, it is also worth switching to green electricity here, so that coal-fired power plants, which are proven to be real climate killers, are promised an end. China in particular, but also neighboring countries such as Poland, have far too many of these power plants. After all, China has already written the plan to stop building new ones and to close others.

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My bill is structured in such a way that it could be only half as high, but in return it can also be up to four times as high.

If you now calculate this for a citizen, i.e. for a household, then you only get 1-3 euros per year in additional costs. That sounds much more pleasant and again so cheap that half of all households say, oh at 1-3 euros it's not worth the effort. Of course, that pleases the electricity sellers.

From 3 million euros you can just pay 10x manager salaries. It doesn't matter that much. Did you know that Germany now produces so much surplus electricity that it has to be given away in large quantities on the electricity exchange! The surplus of electricity then also applies to other countries, not only this country produces too much. This is how the price drop occurs. With the increase in real-time optimisable electricity production, today can be better controlled so that electricity production is reduced at peak times, but it still takes time.

 

While looking at the production of electricity

from 1-2 cents per car On a good day, a small portion of the electricity goes out to the electricity vendors, but that is the exception rather than the rule. On the other hand, one then asks oneself why this surplus cannot simply be pumped into regions where electricity is scarcely or not at all available. The cables that would have to transport it cost a lot of money and the loss of electricity over many thousands of kilometers is very high. It could also be distributed to the low-wage sector for free, but there are no storage modules to absorb the excess. Excess wherever you look. A phenomenon of this century.

 

Back to the core.

If the initial situation were different and the electricity vendors would tell you, make and do that the motion detector only goes on when it is really supposed to, and the money saved will benefit kindergartens and other facilities, then everyone would be there. In a society that doesn't treat each other socially, it's still chic to support social projects, isn't it strange? But such an action would first have to be raised with the available media and resources. You can deal with the matter once. Enterprising people could work out a working model that, due to this circumstance, would adjust all motion detectors nationwide. That would create new jobs in the short term. But to be honest, the "do it yourself method" is the wiser choice.

 

Now, of course, you can take even more time and extrapolate to Europe and the rest of the world. With a little research and the right data, you can certainly see how many units are sold per year and how many of them also start at night in high-traffic areas.

But my job is done for now.

 

30,000 kilowatts fizzle out every day. This can supply 1000-3000 households with electricity per day.

If you did everything right during the installation in the future, then no corrections would be necessary afterwards.

 

In times of regenerative energy from sun and wind, such a small problem seems to have become much less important. In total, however, a proud 11 million kilowatts came together over the year.

The 11 here symbolically as the number of football players on a field. The sport that captivated Germany for many decades.

There are probably 100 other corners where more power is wasted, but even so, a poorly adjusted motion detector is one component in the whole wasting machinery. You have to start with something, right? ( somewhere in Europe )

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