Lutron Maestro Motion Sensor Dimmer Switch for Bathroom, Garage, Laundry Room, and Closet, Occupancy and Vacancy Sensor, Single-Pole/Multi-Location, No Neutral Required, MSCL-OP153M-WH, White

This Lutron MSCL-OP153M motion sensor dimmer costs more than others, but if you are sensitive about your home environment, it may well be worth it to you. I have installed 3 of these in my home during the past few years, and am very pleased with them. I was on the verge of purchasing a fourth switch when amazon offered me a free one as part of the vine program, in exchange for writing a review - an offer I just couldn’t resist.If your light switch is in a favorable location, you can replace it with a motion sensor and the lights will turn on automatically when you walk into the room. Very handy in places like garages, laundry rooms, workshops - basically any room you tend to enter with your hands full.The most obvious thing setting these Lutron Maestro sensors apart, is the pleasant, soothing, fade-to-on and fade-to-off effect. When we come home at night, our hall lights smoothly fade to on as we walk through the front door. We no longer need a constantly burning night-light in the bathroom: as a guest enters the room the lights gracefully fade-on, and then turn themselves off just as gracefully a few minutes after the room is vacated.Other, less expensive occupancy sensors can do a similar job, but the big downside is they snap on, and snap off abruptly. They are a good choice if you are on a tight budget, or if your lights cannot be dimmed (most fluorescent tubes cannot). There are many brands of this harsh style switch, including Lutron (I installed one in my mothers laundry room with non-dimmable fluorescent lights and it works fine). But don’t kid yourself, the experience of this abrupt on-off style switch is far inferior compared to the Maestro dimming sensor. In most applications, I would probably re-lamp the room with bulbs that dim in order to use the Maestro.The Good:Clear, comprehensive instructions come with the switch, detailing the most common installations. Plus you can look up additional details online for special cases.The wiring job is easy, and straight-forward IF you are replacing a single-switch-controlled light. Just wire it in exactly like the switch you are replacing and it will work fine.Can be wired into situations where more two switches control a single light (curiously called a “three way” configuration in the electrical trades). This situation is a bit tricky so you will need to follow the instructions carefully, but it can be done (if I can do it, probably you can too!). This extra complexity isn’t really a knock against Lutron, because even regular, mechanical 3-way switches can be a challenge to many DIY folks, especially those who don’t like to follow instructions.Lutron also makes a companion control that simplifies the 3-way situation, but I have no experience with that.Configurable in numerous ways to suit your taste, or the situation. The switch can function as an occupancy sensor (lights go on when you enter a room, and off when you leave, automatically), a vacancy sensor (you manually turn on the lights, and they go off automatically when you leave the room), and in many other ways. (More details about this below).Completely silent when turning on and off. Less expensive, non-dimming sensors usually use relays - if you have sensitive ears you will hear them click on and off.Lights can be set to any level. The dimmer part of this sensor consists of Lutron’s highly regarded Maestro dimmer. See reviews of that particular product for complete details.These switches are available in multiple colors (I have a Burgundy colored one in my wine-room, for example).These are thoughtfully-designed, sophisticated, well made switches - typical of the Lutron brand. I have numerous Lutron switches - some more than 10 years old - and cannot recall encountering a single defective one.The switch gives you ample warning that it is about to turn off the lights by dimming them many seconds before things go dark. This is a wonderful, useful feature - something cheaper, on-off style sensors simply cannot do.The Bad:Your existing switch must be in a “favorable” location. Basically the switch needs to be able to “see” you in order to work it’s magic. (More details available in Lutron’s online document.)These switches are a bit bulkier than simple mechanical switches. Not a problem in most cases, and no bulkier than regular dimmer switches, but maybe an issue if you’ve got a really small, tight, overcrowded electrical box.Summary:Any light that can be dimmed can be automatically and gracefully turned on and off by this sensor switch, as long as it can “see” you in the room. It will work with most bulbs that are dimmable, (including LEDs, Halogens, etc.)If your bulbs cannot be dimmed, this switch will not work - consider re-lamping with appropriate bulbs, or use an on-off style sensor (e.g. Lutron’s MS-OPS2).Other Details:What is a favorable location? A switch located inside the room, next to the doorway is often a very good location. Many switches in bathrooms, laundry rooms, and garages are oriented this way.A less favorable location is a switch that sees too much. For example I have a hallway light switch that sees into another room. It was a challenge to set up because it would turn on when one walked from the kitchen to the living room. I was able to get it working quite nicely by partially covering the sensor with a small piece of tape (basically “blinding its view to the left”).Configurability. Wow. There are so many ways to configure this switch I will cover only a few of the cool things you can do:Turn lights on when a person enters the room, and off a short time after everyone has left the room. This is often called an Occupancy Sensor.Do NOT turn lights on automatically - only do it if the On button is tapped (like a regular switch). But, once everyone leaves the room turn the lights off automatically. This is often called a Vacancy Sensor.Never automatically turn the lights on during the day - only do it when the room is dark (uses an ambient light sensor for this trick).Turn lights on automatically when someone enters the room. If that someone turns the lights off, don’t turn on again automatically until everyone has left the room. You might use this in your TV room.Set the highest and lowest levels the dimmer can be adjusted to. (Useful for certain finicky LED bulbs that don’t dim all the way down, for example).Adjust the level the lights go to when the switch automatically turns on (default is 100%).Adjust the rate at which the lights fade on and off.Disable the small, discrete, indicator lights on the switch (not even I am fussy enough to have tried this one - yet!)Set timeout duration to (1, 3, 5, 15 or 30 minutes). This is how long lights stay on after the room is vacated. Default is 5 minutes.Adjust the sensitivity of the main sensor (high or low). If this isn’t enough, you can cover part of the sensor with tape, as I did for my hallway switch.For additional details about this switch, goto the Lutron website (lutron.com), and search for the document entitled: 048480a.pdf. This 23 page document provides a wealth of information about the sensor range, settings, and myriad configuration options.Buy the way. If you really must know, my latest Lutron switch is going to automatically control the lights in our walk-in closet.Hope you found this review useful.

When i replaced all my floodlights with led bulbs, I also replaced my manual dimmers with these.They work great and can be programmed as to which intensity to turn on at, they also learn how low the ambient light needs to be in order to turn on (Depending on the setting).Also, there is an advances setting mode, found that in a separate manual. That allows you to lock the switch at a given preset, so even if you change the light level, after turning off and on, you're back to the preset level. This is useful for example in a hallway by the bedrooms were i set the preset at the lowest level so we don't get blasted by light at night.So, while the positives are obvious from a quick look at the manual, here are a couple gotchas:- These dimmers work in a three way setup, but only with a companion dimmer that does not have a sensor. So if you want a motion sensor at the base of your stairs and a motion sensor at the top of your stairs, this will not work, kind of a shame. At least with the companion dimmer you can control dimming from both ends of the stairwell and turn the light on/off with the button- You can use this in a three way setup with a regular siwtch (just have to change a setting so it knows you're using a regular switch)- the motion sensitivity setting only has high and low - basically, high is not high enough and low is not low enough. Wish it would have a broader adjustment rangeMy only major issue with these switches is that I have not found out a way to force these to stay on - basically without any movement, the light will go off after the timeout. Yes, you can go in the settings, follow some steps, and disable the motion sensor but that pretty much defeats the purpose of buying a dimmer with a motion sensor. I wish that i could hold the up button and turn the light on and then it would stay on until i press the button. About the same goes for off. If you want the light to stay off while you're in the room, you can pull the bottom service switch, but that's hokey.The way the sensor works is, after you turn off the light, it waits for the movement to stop and then 20 more seconds. but if you're sitting still for 30 seconds, then your next motion will turn on the light. Most other motion activated switches have a manual switch, that would have been an option too.So, while the ability to force the switch to stay on would have been nice, we really like the switches overall. They work very well and we have them all over our house.

I purchased this for use in our kitchen's breakfast nook to allow adjusting the brightness and for shutting off the lines when everybody had left the table.Installation was fairly straightforward and it took all of 30 minutes to swap the switch and configure it to my liking.The only thing that stumped me for a moment was the green ground wire coming off the frame, and what I thought was also a green ground screw. A quick consult of the directions declared that the screw was actually blue (still looks more green to me) and it was only needed if wiring with multiple switches.I see folks complaining that their LED's flicker with this switch. They need to make sure that the LEDs are actually dimmable. While the switch works with LEDs, the bulbs ALSO have to be dimmable. If the bulb drivers are not designed to be dimmable they will flicker.I also see folks complaining that it is hard to configure. There are four settings you can set, each with no more than four choices to select with each. You only have to set the ones you want to change from the defaults.For those on the West Coast, this switch meets California Title 24 building requirements that now require vacancy sensors to control lights in bathrooms, garages, laundry rooms, and utility rooms.