Is my Occupancy Sensor Switch going bad? Or ghosts are visiting?

[roc_on_the_rocks]

I updated the kitchen light switch with a Cooper Occupancy Sensor Switch model OS306U-W-K around eights years ago and I just love it! It's so convenient and it has been working great.

That's until about a month ago... when it started turning on automatically without any motion around. It turns on, then times out, then sometimes turns back on immediately, sometimes takes hours.

Cooper Occupancy Sensor Switch model OS306U-W-K

Is the sensor going bad? Do these sensors age?
Or I should call the Ghostbusters?

 

[Kaizen]

Yea motion sensing wear out. Or you have a rat.
If it has any sensitivity adjustment try turning it down and see if that helps. If not get something new.


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[Sumboodie]

I hate those. We had one at work in the *******. Real fun trying to get the lights back on with a turd hanging in my ***.

 

[Paycheck]

Did you recently change bulb to led?

 

[BreeStephany]

Looking over Eaton's spec sheet on them, I see that they are time adjustable, but didn't really see anything about adjusting the sensitivity on them.

I have had a lot of good luck with Legrand's Wattstopper occupancy sensors over the years and can't really think of many callbacks on them outside of adjusting the time delay. They are compatible with LED lighting and you can adjust the sensitivity and time delay on them so they work for your desired application.

Just my two cents.

 

[roc_on_the_rocks]

Thanks for all feedback so far guys. For troubleshooting, I started covering the light sensor with layers of 3M painters tape, and even at five layers it still detects me walking there and it still trips on its own.

Did you recently change bulb to led?

Bingo! Yes I did. It's an old 4-foot 4-lamp fixture that I overhauled nine years ago and updated with 'modern' ballast and new fluorescent bulbs. Then I installed the Occupancy Sensor Switch about eight years ago and it worked fine until recently.
But as the fluorescent bulbs started burning up, I replaced all four with ballast-compatible Sylvania LED tubes a couple of months ago. I had overlooked that connection, but I think that's when the 'ghost tripping' started. Eaton/Cooper advertises this switch to be compatible with a variety of bulb types, including LED. But perhaps the ballast/LED combination is upsetting the switch.

I could try reducing the sensitivity of the switch, there are instructions here:
Daylight Sensing Adjustment (OS306U only)

If that doesn't work, I could try fluorescent bulbs.

Any additional insight about this being LED related?