Outdoor Security Lighting Overview
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Statistics show that crimes are less likely to occur in well lit areas, because a well-lighted property is an excellent deterrent against criminals. Although nothing is guaranteed to prevent malicious activity or guarantee personal safety, outdoor security lighting is one of the most practical and effective ways to prevent crime in or around your home or office.
An outdoor security lighting system is a deterrent because it exposes the criminal, who looks for areas with little to no lighting. Well lit areas increase the risk of detection for criminals and makes them less confident about taking the risk of entering your property.
The main objectives of an outdoor security lighting system are to illuminate dark areas and detect and recognize movement in the protected area.
The best vision with outdoor lighting is obtained from downward directed and shielded security lighting that is constantly on, supplemented with instant-on lighting triggered by motion detectors.
Note: It is important to position security lights high up and well out of reach, so they cannot be disabled by intruders. Overall, the best position is mounted as high as possible on your property in a downward position for safe and reliable operation.
You can buy many different types of security lights and outdoor security lighting systems, so it is best to divide security lighting into two lamp categories:
- High Intensity Discharge (HID)
- Halogen or Incandescent.
High Intensity Discharge Lights
HID lights are energy efficient, long lasting and for this reason are commonly used in landscape lighting. The most popular HID lights are the mercury vapor types, which are blue-green colored. The other common types of outdoor flood lights are:
- high-pressure sodium
- metal halide
- fluorescent.
All of these sources require a warm-up period in order to return to full intensity if the power goes off. As such they are not designed for immediate use for example with motion detectors and should be therefore be used in conjunction with other sources for instant on lighting.
Halogen or Incandescent Lights
Halogen lights operate on standard house current and are often used as floodlights. They are ideal for instant-on applications because they require no warm up period. These security lights work well in combination with HID lighting as supplemental security lighting. They are not power efficient so are less suited to continuous use.
Motion Detectors
These devices sense movement and turn outdoor security lights on when motion is detected and are ideal for both security lighting and energy management. Because they switch the lights off and on constantly, they are designed to control halogen or incandescent sources and cannot be used to control HID lights..
Christmas Outdoor Lighting Ideas
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The tradition of lighting homes, public buildings and businesses at Christmas seems to become more popular every year.
There is a huge selection of Christmas outdoor lighting available. Most people seem to choose a selection of Christmas theme figures that are often animated, with a background made of light strands and colorful LED rope light.
Suggestions to consider with Christmas lighting:
- Decorate the background and outline of the building with LED Rope Lights
- Select Christmas Yard Art. Popular figures include Santa, Rudolph and the Reindeer, light art in the form of local landmarks.
- Animated figures are great fun.
- Lawn Decorations of Snowmen and Reindeer are popular.
- Use Christmas LED Lights where possible for power efficiency.
- LEDs are available in Lights Strings, Rope Lights and LED Garlands come in an assortment of colors, sizes and string lengths.
Christmas Light Design Tips:
- First sketch the outside of your house, indicating its dimensions - height, width and length.
- Note the locations of any available power outlets in the sketch.
- Decide where you want the lights to go e.g. along the eaves, around windows.
- If you want lights on trees and bushes, measure the height of bushes and the height of the sections of any trees you want to light, including each tree branch.
- For trees and bushes, a good rule of thumb is to allow about 50 lights per foot of height (double this number if you’re using miniature lights).
- In the design, add an extra 25-40 feet to allow for the pitch of the roof if you are following the roofline.
- Decide what style of lights you want to use: solid, chasing or blinking? Miniature (C-7) or full-size (C-9)? Do you want white or colored lights or a mix? Rope lights usually come in lengths from 25 lights to 200 lights.
- Now you have to work out how many strings of lights you’ll need based on your design and measurements.
- At this point you may decide to scale back your design, because you have too many lights!
- Also remember you don’t want you house/premises to be too bright - you’ll lose the appeal of the best Christmas light arrangements.
Christmas Light Installation Tips:
- Test the lights before you install them (it’s a pain in the b–t if you have to take them down again).
- Get help. If you’re up high have someone hold the ladder and pass you the lights.