Last updated on April 29th, 2017
Security lighting is the best preventative measure that you can take for home security. This may include outdoor motion lights or other such lighting for burglary deterrence and nighttime security purposes.
Once you’ve installed security lighting, you will be rewarded with a sense of safety. Every time that I have added more lighting to our house and property, I have had this increased feeling of safety and security (warm and fuzzy 😉 ).
Intruders, no matter their intention, do not like lights on at night. It will expose them and will most certainly deter them.
Here are a few simple and logical tips for your own security lighting:
Note: This outdoor motion light senses 180° out to 60-feet!
…and has an additional sensor 360° down & all around (total coverage).
RAB Super Stealth Outdoor Motion Light
Mount security lighting high enough
Security lighting should be mounted high and out of reach from vandalism. Sometimes a would-be burglar will preemptively come by your home while you’re away (at work?) and unscrew the bulbs just enough so they won’t come on at night. So if possible mount them high enough so as not to be able and reach them without a ladder.
Protect your lighting with mesh or other shielding methods
A rock or other such object thrown at the light may break the bulb. Some sort of shielding mesh will prevent this from happening. Some manufacturers include this preventative screen or sell them as an add-on.
The more lights the better…
Multiple lights of medium power is better than fewer lamps of high power because it will reduce glare (which makes it difficult for an observer to see the area effectively), and it will provide more even lighting with fewer zones of shadow. The technique will also provide more redundancy if one lamp’s bulb blows out.
Protect the wiring of your security lighting
It is important to protect the wiring to your lighting in order to prevent tampering or disabling. Use conduit and/or bury wiring underground where possible. If wire is exposed, it can be snipped / cut.
Use multiple electrical circuits
For multiple lighting, it is best to use multiple electrical circuits when installing security lighting in several areas. If one circuit trips out, you still have other live circuits to provide lighting.
Locked outdoor electrical box
Check to be sure that the electric meter box is locked as well as the outdoor ‘mains’ circuit breaker box.
Related articles:
Best Locations For Security Motion Lights
THE Best Outdoor Motion Light For Your Home Security
The Best LED Replacement Flood Light For Outdoor Motion Light
Security lighting is a primary first defense against intruders and should be one of your actions taken when it comes to your home security.
The newer LED motion lights draw far less power than the old PAR38 incandescent types. So these days I’ll take a computer UPS (uninterruptible power supply), that is >3 years old, but still with some life left in it and hook it up inline with the lights. This way in the event of a power outage, or someone tampering with your power… SURPRISE!
I’ve also used battery powered LED motion flood lights. They work well, but even set for a 3 seconds burst of light, with the dog running around the batteries last a month.
Last would be solar powered lights. A great idea. However they seem to be designed for an average period of sunlight to recharge. If the days are short, such as in winter, or if the weather is not sunny – these lights stop lighting shortly after sunset.
Installed a swann 8 camera system with night vision, oh my it can see like a owl, I prefer the darkness as the person in the defensive position the problem has to come to me……….and they dont know the area end of story.
another reason to shield your lights is so the sensors can’t be pushed upward with a stick, so that they can’t sense anything but the sky,
i have been thinking lately, that a useful addition to security lighting, might be
put the sensor outside, and wire the actual light to run inside the home.
might be a quick easy way to be alerted that something/someone is about
might make any potential burglar think that a person inside has put light on
Ok, I’m going to get everyone fired up…
The very best “security, burglar deterrent” light I have found is a Green-Laser center mass.
No NO, not really, but a good system that does not come on every time a skunk passes by is worth its weight in gold.
Good advice by McGyver68, a Batt/Solar backup LED is the way to go, not cheap, but security never is.
NRP
Prefer to keep outside lights off. Once outside lights are tripped the visitor realizes you know what he knows and can hide and surprise you or wait you out. You lose a big advantage. Use 9 volt battery operated infer red sensors with at least 2 chiming monitors inside the home. Very effective. Visitor has no idea you know he coming. Placed away from home, you have a minute or two to react. Can add generation 3 Night Vision for additional capability if you can afford. Can add tin can with pebbles inside for trip lines closer to house for last minute alarm. Place cow bells on all door handles and on all sliding windows. Can back inside of doors and windows with heavy fish netting that’s impossible to break through even if you get the door or window open. Attach netting to eye screws. Keep on hand to screw in and setup nets if needed. Buy break proof window film have ready if needed to install if things get bad. Have air soft trip lines available, see Evike on internet, if needed to install. Perfectly legal and will not injure yet great warning device. Very loud. Have a dog to send out to inspect in the dark night for any disturbance rather than you go and become a victim.
I have a front porch light, a back porch light and a good flashlight. I use the porch lights to illuminate the area when visitors arrive or leave after dark and sometimes, though seldom, I use them to illuminate the yard to see what’s up from inside my dark house after hearing an unidentifiable bump in the night in the vain hope that I might somehow scare away some unseen boogyman. I have used the flashlight occasionally to shoot armadillos on especially dark nights although, generally there is enough light between just before the first quarter and just after the last quarter moons to see well enough at night to accomplish this without artificial illumination other than a small dot of white luminous paint on the rear of the front sight. The flashlight is used mostly to find all the stuff I misplaced inside my house although I did use it once to find a lost chicken that didn’t come home to roost one night. Besides that, around my house, the night belongs to me, not to the intruders. I never turn lights on to go outside and I never use a flashlight to search for suspected prowlers. If anyone comes to my house to steal my stuff they will make a lot of noise… they just won’t know it until it’s too late. It’s amazing what a few non-lethal booby traps can do. Intruders may not like lights but they will find out what the dark is all about if they come to my place.
Having said that, I live in the country to get away from the city and all of its light pollution and I have enough problems with local government and all the people around me that think the night must be as light as day in order for them to be safe. Lights just make them a better target. Security lights may very well be a good thing for many folks, but not for me, thank you. I’ve never had a problem living with darkness in the 23+ years I have lived here although I know several people that have had their stuff walk away at night from their very illuminated home/sheds and could only scratch their head wondering how something like that could happen. If I ever did install security lights it would most likely be a motion detection light that I could control from inside my house as I don’t want it turning on when I go outside at night. Just saying.
CrabbeNebulae You are spot on, in the bigger metro areas the boggie theives are using night vision to drive through the areas and locate houses with cameras security systems that have night vision as they look like a yard light but are not seen by the naked eye, pretty clever also they might still target the residence but they will be sure to take the hard drive for the security system with them after stealing what they want. As far as motion detectors I gave up on them after 10 years of frustration, of bad equipment constant on/off problems and instead started using driveway metal detector systems which would even pick up a person if they had some metal with them or on them, they are not cheap but did not worry about constant false alarms either.
One thing to consider is people with night vision devices bright lights will make them useless. Also have you ever looked at someone who is behind a bright light? If you are behind a battery of high intensity lights people shooting at you will be somewhat blinded while you are not adversely affected.
Thanks for the good ideas. I am intrigued with the idea of using netting around the windows (if things ever get really bad).