Your family’s safety is no laughing matter. When it comes to setting up a proper deterrent at home using lights, you will want to plan accordingly depending on a few factors listed below:
- Budget
- Likelihood Of Attack
- Area To Be Lit
- Weather (Can Prevent Proper Lighting or Damage Lights Prematurely)
- Automation or Manual Set Up / Operation
- Light Technology (Timed, Motion-Activated, Floodlights, Spotlights)
- Maintenance
- Installation (Are You Handy?)
Where Do You Put Security Lights?
The placement of home security lights is usually pretty simple. You want to light up your entrances, garages, storage sheds, blind spots (wide open areas or corners with no light), walkways, decks and patios. Ideally your lights will be high enough to avoid tampering unless you are the one conducting maintenance or replacement.
Placing lights on the side of your home is also a great idea as you will want to minimize any dark areas around the home. If you want to keep the area dark, but still have some sort of security system you can use IR (infrared) lights for your surveillance system. Using IR lights is not the most effective deterrent, however, as bad guys will use the cover of darkness to conceal their presence.
The point of having a security system with lights is to illuminate your home to the point that a theft is stopped before it even happens. If your lights are not turned on or properly placed, you will still likely fall victim to a burglary.
How High Should Security Lights Be?
Your goal when placing lights will be to keep them as effective as possible (especially when using motion sensors), while keeping them as inaccessible and tamper-proof as possible. To achieve optimal efficiency and tamper-resistance you will want your lights to be out of hand reach, so from 8 feet and higher, but below the threshold of motion sensors which is approximately 25 feet.
Having a state of the art system around your house where a criminal can disable it without a struggle would be futile. You should considering protecting the system’s cables, switches, and the transformer. If any of these components are easily reachable, it would be wise to put them in a locked box or move them to a locked area if at all possible.
Going through a bit more of a hassle on your end when maintaining these devices will pay great dividends when defending yourself from the ever lurking threat of burglary.
How Many Lumens Should A Security Light Have?
If you are asking this question, it would be safe to assume that you know what lumens are to begin with. If you do not know what they are, then let us explain! Lumens are the new era equivalent to watts back in the day when incandescent bulbs were the all the rage. With incandescent bulbs higher wattage meant more brightness, but this came with a big problem: most of the energy used to light up the bulb was wasted as heat due to the bulb lighting up depending on how hot the filament was.
In today’s era of lighting, lumens are used to describe how bright a light source is. A lumen is the unit of measure for light emitted by a source and visible to the human eye. In other words, the higher the lumens, the more light and visibility that a light source will provide to your eyes.
When it comes to choosing lights and lumens for your areas outside, you will want a minimum of 1000, but for areas such as walkways or entrances where you will be passing through frequently you can use lights with less lumens at or around the 750 range.
One final thought with choosing lumens for your security set up is keeping your neighbors in mind when deciding on lumens. If you purchase something that is so bright your neighbors get annoyed you may run into problems down the line. Contrary to that you could end up lighting an area between your nearest neighbor on either side by pitching in for a stronger light or number of lights which would benefit both homes.
Should You Leave Your Porch Light On At Night? Should You Sleep With Porch Lights On?
Leaving your porch light on at night can help you and be a nuisance if you don’t know what you’re going for. If you are simply using it for visibility, whether it be for yourself or family members, then it will best to use it only when you need it.
If you are going for the security posture, you will want to randomize the use. If your light is always on when you are gone, someone who has been watching your house for some time will know this and it will basically be the light that tells them whether they should strike or not.
While studies have shown that crime is less common in well-lit streets and neighborhoods, the truth is it really depends on your behavior. Leaving your lights on, or off for that matter, 24/7 would be the best way to deter theft as they would not know if you’re home or not, but the fact of the matter is that you are better off sleeping with your porch light on as it will easily illuminate anyone standing at your doorstep or deter someone who wants as little visibility as possible.
If you are sleeping with your light on, then a thief will only wake you when it’s too late, and by then you better have another means of deterrent or self-defense. Another thing you can do is use timers or home automation.
If you can install a system that will turn your lights on at a random time in the evening, and off at a random time in the morning, you will be more likely to scare off someone casing your home.
Should You Leave Outdoor Lights On All Night?
Burglars have, during interviews, said time and time again that they always knock, and quite loudly at that, before going into a home to verify if there is anyone in the building. If you are wondering about leaving your outdoor lights on at night, you have to answer a few questions first: do you live in a rural area? Are you making it easier for a thief to walk right in by lighting their way? Are your neighbors watching out for you as they are themselves?
Leaving your outdoor lights on overnight can be a great way to deter a theft, if there are people looking out for each other. If you live in a rural area you are better off leaving your home dark as this will only make it easier for the thief to walk in. Finally, if you want to light your home for yourself, and you want to deter a thief, you will want to randomize the usage of lights.
Approach this as if you were the one watching your home waiting for an opportunity: if the light is on it means they’re home, if the light is off it means they’re home, or if they turned their light off in the evening it means they’re asleep. If you can answer those questions, so can a thief, so understand that what you do with your lights is seen by all in your neighborhood.
Are Solar Security Lights Any Good? Do Solar Lights Stay On All Night?
In today’s day and age, any solar light will provide ample light IF IT DOES NOT HAVE TO STAY ON ALL NIGHT, but if you want something to light your home for 8 – 12 hours, you will unfortunately need to use the traditional methods of power. Solar lights, due to the panel’s efficiency, typically last around 5 hours and that is if you maintain the panels clean and the batteries it comes with are of decent quality.
Unless you modify your solar lights with a big battery and even bigger panels, they will not last all night at the brightness you would need them. If you are looking for something that will last you all night you are better off buying something with a dedicated power source or motion sensors.
Most solar lights will come with the photocell sensors which allow them to turn on and off automatically depending on the amount of light they receive. These are your best bet if you want the best of both worlds as they will allow your solar lights to operate only when it’s appropriately dark, but the lifespan of the batteries and panels will still be a limiting factor.