Let There Be Motion-Sensored Light

A high of 61F (16C) when we left the lot where we store the Phaeton sent a twinge of guilt through us for not being out and about, exploring somewhere new to us.  In our defense, the temperature wasn’t expected to rise that high, and the clouds were supposed to move in for the afternoon.  So much for the weather forecast!  We had gorgeous blue skies with plenty of sunshine through the day — I even got a touch of sun-color on my face.

That’s not to say we didn’t have fun at the coach; we did.  And it was a productive day to boot.  We took care of a few things inside during the morning when it was slightly more chilly; then we moved outside.  I’ll focus on the latter in this post.

As you might imagine, with such a beautiful day at our disposal, we just had to have an al fresco lunch before tackling the day’s ‘sorta big’ project.  Pulling out our camp chairs, we even made ourselves comfy.

After lunch, I managed to sneak in some downtime while Mui worked!  Of course, that was in between documenting the project on which he was working.

First a bit of web browsing …

… then catching up on the news.

Every stix & brix home we’ve lived in for the past 20 years or so has had a motion-sensing security light above the front entry.  Why should our condo on wheels be any different.  That was our thought when we put replacing the exterior light above the door on our list of coach mods.

This wasn’t a project that was on the front burner — that is, until I read Mark’s post on Phaeton Place.  I sent the link to Mui.  He liked what he read on the blog and the RV Upgrades website, and placed an order for the same light — a Star Light Black Smart 1000 Porch Light.  Thanks for doing the research for us, Mark.

Although this light has a bigger footprint than the one that was originally installed, it blends in better with the body of the coach because of the transparent lens.  I also like that it is LED and more energy efficient.  As well, the light is designed to cease functioning when it senses that the house batteries have dropped below 11.5 volts.  That’s a really good thing :-)

See that little orange light above the door?  That’s the topic of today’s mod project.

In his post, Mark had noted that the installation looked easy.  Mui can confirm that it is.  It took just minutes to remove the old light and clean up the residual caulking.  Then, it was a matter of five minutes or so to connect the new light to the existing electrical wires; fill the hole with some caulking; affix the light plate to the body of the coach with a couple of self-tapping screws; run a bead of black silicone caulking around the edges; and finally, place the clear lens cover to finish up the install.

Here’s the light still in its packaging.

First things first; let’s check out the instructions … just in case!

The old light comes off …

… and the new light gets installed.

Et voilà … the finished project.

In broad daylight, the motion sensor doesn’t work.  That too is a good thing.  However, the little blue light that indicates the sensor is working did blink when we tested it, so we have no reason to think the light won’t work as expected.  Kudos on getting another project under your belt, Mui!