Is this for residential build? Where are you located? I was not aware that any residential code that required motion sensors. Are you positive of this requirement? Because I am a vampire naturally, I would put the fan on the motion sensor if it is really required. I like the lights off when I walk into the bathroom in the middle of the night.

Good luck!

I'm in California. The Title 24 requirement (as of 2013) is for the light in residential bathrooms to turn off soon after the room is vacated to save energy.

I don't pretend to completely understand the code. The city signed off on the two bathrooms I remodeled last year, so I'm assuming they met the code; even though, logically, it would seem to me that energy would be saved by turning off all the lights when the room is vacated. Lights do not go on automatically when I walk into the bathrooms with motion sensors.

I'm not seeing any requirement for the fan to shut off when room is vacant.

In my powder room, guests seem to be intimidated by the motion sensor switch, (which is attached to a single recessed ceiling light on entering the bathroom), so they usually turn on one of the other two light switches, such as the two recessed lights in the shower ceiling or the pendants over the sink.

In my master bathroom, I had to change which light was on the motion sensor. Initially, ceiling lights were on the sensor and they turned off while I was in the bathtub because I was out of the line of sight of the motion sensor. Now the motion sensor is on the vanity lights.

So, is this energy-saving requirement unique to California?

Plan2remodel,

I am not an expert on Title 24 by any stretch but you forced me to read a little of it. I did a search for the word "Motion Sensor" on the code and it only applies to outdoor fixtures. What you are referring to in the bathroom is a "Vacancy Sensor" which is different. The rule for Vacancy sensor only comes into play when you are using non-energy efficiency lighting fixtures. See the clipping below. Are you using LED fixtures in the bathroom?

Good luck!

My GC said we had to have one of our light fixtures on a motion sensor. I have no idea if he was right--I didn't bother to check. Ours flicks the lights off even when my daughter is in the bathroom taking a shower. Fortunately it's on the vanity light so we just use the overhead lights for most purposes, including showers.

Our overhead lights are led. Our vanity lights are not. My understanding is that CA only counts lights as energy efficient if they can only accept the energy efficient bulbs. Not much selection in that category.

crl,

Don't know when you remodeled but in the last two years, there has been a great increase in the selection of vanity lights in LED (example of LED selection from lumens.com). I am not sure why motion sensors and vacancy sensors are being used interchangeably. They are not the same thing in my opinion. I have always thought of occupancy sensors as something that tell you if the room has been occupied in a certain period (detected motion in that period). If it has not detected motion in a certain period of time, it is considered vacant and the light is turned off. A motion sensor relies on constant motion to determine that the room is occupied. So if you don't move, the room is vacant per the sensor. It is a small nuance but it is important. I wonder if you have a motion or occupancy sensor?

A "motion sensor" is a general term that can be used to detect either "occupancy" or "vacancy." The motion sensors in the two bathrooms that I remodeled in 2015 have vacancy sensors - they turn off when they sense the room is unoccupied, but turn on only with a manual switch. (My Dad would have loved vacancy switches - one of his favorite expressions was "When not in use, turn off the juice.")

The GC told me I was required to have at least one light fixture in each bathroom on a vacancy sensor. I didn't question him and didn't look at the code until this week when I started planning the remodel of my 3rd bathroom.

My interpretation is that at least one light fixture in each bathroom must be "high efficacy" (e.g., certified LED or compact florescent). Additional lights must be on vacancy sensors if they are "low-efficacy" (e.g., incandescent or track lighting). The required high efficacy luminaire in each bathroom, and any additional high efficacy
luminaires in a bathroom are not required to be controlled by a vacancy sensor.

Apparently, there was an earlier requirement that at least one "luminaire" in each bathroom be on a vacancy sensor, but I'm not sure if that still holds.

In my powder room, all my light fixtures are LED, including the pendants over the sink. There's a vacancy sensor on one of the three LED light switches - is it needed?

In my master bathroom, the sconces at my makeup mirror are incandescent - all other lights are LED. The vacancy sensor is on an LED light - I think that's wrong - I think it should be on the incandescent lights. I looked for LED sconces for the makeup mirror, but did not find anything suitable at the time.

The city signed off on completion of the work before I had selected the pendants and sconces for the bathrooms - apparently they didn't care.

We remodeled last summer Ironically the link you gave takes me to a page that says no products meet those criteria. When I click on one of the vanity lights shown as other things you might like, I get a fixture which is title 24 compliant in the fluorescent option. I strongly dislike fluorescent light. I previously seen people on the kitchen forum lamenting this issue.

Our light stays on when I am using the room. No idea whether this is somehow height related (dd is six so she's still short), or to do with the part of the room being used related (I don't shower in this bathroom, but I do clean it and help with hair combing, etc) or something else.

I'm certainly not a lighting expert, but this seems to work much like what was called motion sensors on the lights in my law school 20 years ago--they would sometimes go off during final exams because the people in the room were all sitting so still. So I don't know why it wouldn't be called a motion sensor.

crl,

Sorry about the bad link. If you select LED as the light source on that page, it will show 340 fixtures that are considered bathroom fixtures. None of them are flourescent. I know that Tech Lighting makes several fixtures for the bathroom that have different Kelvins (2700 to 4000K) which allows users to select the fixtures of their choice. I have relinked the search for LED bathroom fixtures that I did on lumens.com

LED Bathroom Fixtures

Techlighting LED Bathroom Fixtures as an example

The lumens link still takes me to a nomoriducts available page. Tech lighting takes me to a lovely, super modern fixture. I hope there are a lot of choices out there. I didn't find them when we were remodeling.

After you get it inspected, you can remove the motion sensor and replace it with a switch.

crl_,

Strange about the link. On the left handside of the lumens page, do you see an option for "By light source"? If you select LED there, you will see the options.