Читать книгу Creating an Eco-Friendly Home & Workplace - Paul Hymers - Страница 39

Small children and half-awake adults are prone to doing a lot of damage at night. Either to the electricity bill by switching on all the lights when they get up for the bathroom or a drink and forgetting to switch them off when they go back to bed, or to themselves by stumbling. What would help would be some low-level marker lights that use little electricity and act like runway lights on an airfield to guide them safely about the home.

If you plan on lighting a stairway for nighttime safety, LECs and LEDs are ideal. Located in the strings (sides of the stairs) or the risers (vertical parts of the stairs), they can produce enough light to illuminate the stair treads. LEDs fitted in small diameter spots may comprise of a single watt lamp, but these will be enough to find your way safely on a staircase at night without waking the whole house. A PIR sensor can be employed to switch them on at the top and bottom of a flight.

Do remember that an indoor PIR also needs a daylight sensor if it is to function only when the light levels are low enough for lighting to be necessary. You don’t want it switching on the lights when there is enough daylight not to need them.