Outdoor Security Lighting Installation

Nothing but a nightmare for a criminal when bright light shines down upon him while he evaluates your home for burglary. Unwanted guests around your home, no matter their intention do not like security lighting to be lit during the night. It exposes their faces and will most certainly deter them during their activities. Installing security lighting in and around your home will offer you and your family a sense of safety and protection your home needs.

Before hiring a licensed electrician to install security lighting, take a walk around your property, identify areas that are in darkness and any potential security areas we’re would be intruders might manage to get into your home. Keep in mind you wont want to illuminate your home like a Christmas tree, this will draw too much unwanted attention. Another hint would be to keep your security lighting out of arms reach, this will protect the lighting from vandalism. Mount the light so that the only way it can be reached is from a ladder.

We are now living in a modern era we’re the advancement of technology through mobile phones has made remote viewing of your home accessible to everyone. Your out-door smart security lighting can now be accessible through your mobile phone when connected to a central platform hub or just a simple plug-in module, it all depends on what kind of system your willing to go for. Outdoor smart lighting can deter unwanted guests by making your home look occupied when you are not even there.

As well as controlling your lighting remotely, you can set schedules for lighting to come on at certain times of the day. Try and have your front door lighting come on at sunset or even at dawn. Most smart home security devices will include an away mode, allowing you to schedule what times your lighting will operate in certain areas of your home, lighting going off randomly during the day will scare off any would be thieves. Another advantages of smart security lighting is it can link up with other smart devices such as CCTV cameras or home alarm systems.

We have had good experience in the past with the Floodlight Camera by Ring. The floodlight camera has a built in speaker and microphone, so you can see, hear and speak to whoever is on your property. The floodlight camera has also a built in siren, so you manually operate the siren to let neighbours know there is someone suspicious on your property. A motion sensor is also included so any movement in range of the sensor will trigger and automatically send a notification to your phone.

Security Motion Lights – will only activate the light when it senses motion. Sensor lighting has a small ‘eye’, that measures heat waves that radiate from moving objects. The sensor will only function if humans, animals or vehicles were to trigger it. Rain, falling leaves or even snow will not trigger the sensor. Generally most sensor lights will have 3 function dials for time, light level and sensitivity. The Timer will allow you 1 to 20 minutes of light depending on were you set the dial. The sensitivity dial offers you how much area you wish to cover, and the lux dial measures the current light level you desire. The position and level of your motion sensor light needs to be precise. Having your light mounted too high could cause you to be out of range for the sensor to trigger. Another big factor for installing security motion lights, you are helping to reduce your electricity bill as the light is not operating 24/7 and only functioning on sudden movement.

Dusk to Dawn Sensors – Hook your lighting up to dusk to dawn sensors, dusk to dawn sensors operate going into the dark and will disconnect going into sunrise. So this type of sensor will detect the presence of light and switch itself on when going into darkness. The advantage of the dusk to dawn sensor, it will automatically illuminate your lighting throughout the night until daylight starts to immerse. This type of lighting would be good for welcoming guest coming or leaving your home. The big disadvantage it adds to your electrical bill and polluting the planet with energy waste.

LED Floodlights – If you are looking for lighting that is high in illumination this is the type of light for you! Most people will think of floodlighting in a football stadium, car parks or large commercial and industrial buildings. The LED floodlights can be excellent for lighting up medium to large scale back and front yard lighting and and LED floodlight of about 100 watts would be sufficient enough to light this size of yard. Having a floodlight with a cool white temperature and lumens in the value of 1500lm to 2000lm should be more than enough. At km.electric we highly regard using a motion sensor type LED floodlight over having it switched by manual control.

When choosing the type of light you need, choose LED! The days of of incandescent lamps and halogen globes are outnumbered as the LED lamps become more cost efficient and have more advance choices in terms of the type of warmth you need in a light. You will have 3 choices of warmth: warm white 3000k, natural white 4.5k, and cool white 6000k, which is our recommendation for outdoor security lighting. The cool white will offer greater exposure when illuminating your yard and scare off any unwanted guests.

A 30 watt LED lamp for a floodlight will give you an average of 2500lm of light and it is the equivalent of a 100w halogen globe. This typical application would be ideal for driveway security lighting or front and back yard lighting for your home. For smaller installations like the side of your home, a smaller size type of LED fitting is desirable. An 8 – 12 watt LED fitting will roughly give you 800lm of light and is the equivalent of a 60watt incandescent globe.

For outdoor lighting, the higher the IP rating the better. Some security lighting has an IP rating of 56, so it is mostly suited for indirect contact with liquid and not completely dust proof. IP 56 would be more suited underneath a veranda or awning, or even inside your porch entry. IP 65 and 66 can be directly hit by liquids and cause no trouble whatsoever. These type of ratings would also be dust proof. An LED floodlight would have an IP rating of 65 or 66 as you will find this type of lighting to be in a more direct hit to liquid and dust.

Your security lighting can fail day or night and outdoor lighting is a big culprit when a blown fuse, tripped safety switch and even a surge down your line occurs. This is sure a safety hazard for you and your family, losing the protection of your home is also a cause for concern. Our first protocol is to check your safety switches and see if they will reset, if they fail to do so, call your local emergency electrician. Its likely your security outdoor light has had a hit with some form of liquid or perhaps your safety switch has just failed.