5 Things You Need To Know About Yale PIRs
- Keith Unwin
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
First of all, what is a PIR? That would help! PIRÂ stands for Passive Infrared Sensor.
A PIR sensor detects movement by measuring changes in infrared (IR) energy — essentially body heat — in its field of view.
Humans and animals emit infrared radiation. When a warm body moves across the sensor’s coverage area, the sensor picks up a sudden change in IR levels, triggering:
An alarm
A camera recording
A notification
A light activation.
Things to be aware of with Yale PIRs:
They don't flash in normal operation. They're battery powered so having them flash when you walk past would kill the batteries quickly.
You can test what they're picking up by pressing the test button and walking around in front of it. The LED in the PIR should flash occasionally as you're moving. The PIR will exit this test mode after 3 minutes.
They have a sleep timer in them which is to help the batteries to last longer. If a PIR detects movement it will send a signal to the control panel - even if the alarm is not armed. When it's sent a signal, it goes to sleep and will not signal again until it's had 60 seconds where there has been no movement. So if you want to test a sensor in an actual alarm situation, make sure no-one goes in that room for at least 60 seconds before you try to trigger it - or it will not set the alarm off. What's more, if you trigger it while it's asleep, it will reset that 60 second timer so it will stay asleep until there's a clear 60 seconds of no movement.
If you see a PIR and the LED flashes, but you hadn't put it in test mode by pressing the test button, it's indicating that the batteries are running low. If you ignore this, it will eventually stop flashing when you walk past, but this just means the batteries have run out and the sensor is no longer working.
If your PIR is pet friendly, make sure it's fitted between 1.8 and 2m off the ground. This is because the sensor is calibrated to work in a narrow band, and if it's fitted any higher than this, it won't pick up humans or pets.
