We have a 35X50 shop that was recently built and it is lit with LED lights in the ceiling controlled by a motion sensor switch on the wall by one of the man doors. The switch is not close to the heater, which is hung off the 20 ft ceiling.
The shop is fully insulated and is heated by a Calcana infrared natural gas heater (love that heater). During extremely cold weather, we will notice that the lights are on in the shop when there is absolutely nothing in the shop that would be creating motion of any kind. My assumption has always been that the sensor is somehow being impacted by the heater when it cycles on during cold weather. Can motion switches be impacted by temperature changes created by the heater? Maybe just an adjustment to the sensitivity needed?
Motion detector switch affected by heater
heatermotion-sensor
Best Answer
Absolutely! Most motion sensors are IR (infrared) detectors and they can "see" heated air as it moves. If it moves fast enough it may trick the sensor into thinking that it's a human vs. just heated air. In your case the heater may be hitting the sensor directly with its IR output.
Try redirecting your sensor so that it doesn't pick up heated air output from the heater and can't "see" into the output of the heater.
It may take some experimentation with aiming to find a good spot between ignoring the heater and detecting you.