Exterior Security Lighting For Your Home
Exterior security lighting for your home is one of the easiest ways to fend off burglars and intruders. It’s simple to install, low maintenance, and very affordable. In this post I want to show you some different types of security lighting systems so you know what to shop for, as well as how to maximize its effectiveness.
When compared to locks and bars, exterior security lighting doesn’t really do anything to prevent intruders from entering your home. What it does instead is deter them from even trying. The dark of night is key to a burglar’s success, and if your doors light up like the summer sky whenever something is in front of them, they will look elsewhere. There are a ton of other houses in your neighborhood, and security lighting is an excellent way to tell burglars to move on.
The most common setup of exterior security lights is the motion detector. These work by turning the light on whenever something moves in front of the detector. Any exterior light can be upgraded to this setup without any difficult wiring or installation. The motion detector will have a sensitivity adjustment on it, so you can set it however you want, but it takes some fiddling with it to get it to detect people, and not cars as they drive down your street.
There is a different style of motion detector light that is powered by a solar cell, rather than your home’s electricity. This is great for the environment, and your energy bill. You might be concerned about them failing after a cloudy day, but the solar cell holds a charge so that it can power up even after minimal sunlight. Mobility is one of the biggest advantages of this type of security light system. As you’ll read later, having lights in locations other than doors is very helpful, and solar lights can do just this.
How do you get the best results from exterior security lighting for your home? Most people will never do more than have motion detectors on their front, back, and garage doors. That’s fine in most neighborhoods, but if you feel that you need more protection than that, other measures have to be taken. Look around your property to see where all of the possible entry points could be. That means doors, gates, low fences, and even some windows. All of these are possible locations for security lights. Lighting gates and low fences should take priority over windows.
Installation of an advanced security lighting system can be tricky. If you have a solar lighting system, you might be able to get away with just putting them where they need to be, and letting the sun charge them up. Having a system like this wired into your home’s power will take extra work. Wires will have to buried in the ground for fence lights, along walls or eaves for gate lights, and through walls for new exterior installations. That’s not to say that average Joe/Jane Homeowner couldn’t do this themselves, but it’s important to be realistic about how much work it really is.
Protecting your home and family is easy with exterior security lighting. It works great for deterring thieves, but don’t skip the basics like locking doors, closing windows, and securing the rest of the home. There will always be the more brazen burglars out there, so don’t rely on security lighting alone. The extra lighting could just be helping the bad guys find the door handle!
Before doing any shopping figure what needs to be lit on your property, and then decide how you want it to be installed (into the home or solar). This is definitely one of the easier home improvement projects, but there still needs to be a plan and budget involved so that you can get exactly what you need at the price you want to pay. Exterior security lighting for your home should be one piece of your home protection plan, use it with all of the other regular security measures to keep your house and family safe.