One customer who changed how I install motion detectors

Guy in a wheelchair stopped me mid-install at his house in Portland. Said my motion sensor was angled 2 inches too low. He pointed out that most installers never think about people who sit lower. Showed me his old system where the sensor never caught him walking. Now I mount everything 6 inches lower for accessible homes. Anyone else run into a situation that made you rethink a standard height?

3 comments

3 Comments

kim_johnson511mo ago

So now every tall client is going to think I'm installing their sensors for a tiny person secret society?

bell.felix1mo ago

The thing is, that guy in the chair is the one paying for the system, so his needs matter more than some standard rule book. I've seen too many installs where the sensor is up at 6 feet and it completely misses a short person or a kid. It honestly just feels like most people who write those height guidelines have never actually lived in a house with a motion sensor. If you're over 6 feet tall, you're still going to get caught because you'll block the beam anyway. The only people it hurts are the ones who need it to work the most.

the_joseph1mo ago

Kim's got a point there @kim_johnson51, but honestly every customer's gonna have their own thing anyway. Tall people don't usually complain about sensors because they're already above the beam, but someone in a wheelchair notices it every single time. I got a buddy who does commercial work and he told me he started putting sensors at 48 inches from the ground for all his builds after one office hired a guy in a chair and the whole system had to be redone. You're not joining a secret society, you're just covering the people who actually use the space instead of the ones who stand in it for two seconds.