Important Security Lighting For Your Home

Lighting the exterior to your home can create a wonderful ambience and provide the finishing touches to your home, however, it also serves a very important purpose.  Aside from the obvious functions of helping you see better when you enter or leave your home, security lighting is crucial to creating a sense of comfort, safety and well-being, both when in your home, and away from it.

The most obvious safety concern is keeping your home safe from intruders.  The last thing any intruder wants is to draw attention to their activity, so any form of lighting will help to keep your home safe from intruders.  And, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a huge floodlight that lights up the entire suburb.  It could be as simple as a well placed light over the front door or in the garden.  Any light that serves to deter intruders and illuminate dark areas of your home’s exterior, all form part of your security lighting.

When looking at installation of security lighting in your home, there are some basic areas to consider lighting.  The obvious areas are your entry points to the home including the front door, the back door, and any other external entrances such as the laundry, verandah or deck areas.  Also consider lighting the less used entrances to your home, such as the driveway, the garage, and the gates to your home. 

In addition to the entrances to your home, consider lighting other potential hiding places around the exterior of your home, such as near windows and fence lines.  Highlighting your trees or other landscaping and garden areas can also serve as security lighting, helping deter intruders using these as places of concealment.  

Choosing Security Lighting for your Home

Motion Sensor Lights

Outdoor motion sensor light fixtures provide the ability to sense motion in the nearby area, detecting whenever you walk closer, and illuminating.  Motion detector lights serve two main functions, to provide safe ample lighting for you and your family, while simultaneously lighting the area when any stranger or visitor might arrive.

Timed Lights

Timed exterior lights also serve to add a layer of security, with the ability to program them to turn on at appropriate times.  Timed lights are great for when you are away from home for extended periods.

Smart Lighting

Smart lighting options are great for providing you security at your fingertips! Connected to an app on your phone, you can do things like switch internal lights on and off at “normal” times when you aren’t home, to give the appearance of being at home. A lot of apps will also allow you to set times to turn your lights on and off.

On the exterior of your home, you may consider adding a smart security light, or one with a camera option that will allow you to monitor the exterior of your home while you are away.

Some of our favourite smart lighting options for home security include the Security Floodlight with Smart wifi Camera, which has a powerful floodlight with motion sensor and camera, and the Smart wifi Rechargeable Camera, which allows you to create in app automation, so lights illuminate based on behaviours, such as when movement is detected, the lights turn on automatically.

Choosing Lighting for Safety in your Home

Deterring intruders, however, is only one situation where lighting can play an important safety role.  Every home has unique aspects which call for different forms of lighting to ensure it feels safe and secure, but also ensures all visitors to your home have safe entry. 

Pathway Lighting

The pathway to your front door is one of the most important features of your home’s facade.  It carries visual impact, as well as serving an important practical function.  Visitors to your home need to be able to safely find their way into your home.

There are a number of different lighting styles that are perfect for pathways, including bollards, garden spikes, and recessed ground lighting.  All of which keep your pathway lit and safe, while also creating a welcome path to your home.

Step Lighting

When considering lighting for safety, step lighting has to be top of the list.  Steps, by their very nature, present as a trip and fall hazard, and so it is important these are well lit at night.

Some important considerations when looking at step lighting include:

• Ensuring the lights themselves do not present as a hazard.  If you have narrow steps, for instance, opt for more slimline surface mounted, or recessed, designs.
• Ensuring the lights do not impair visibility.  Placement, style and wattage are important considerations to avoid glare.
• Considering the colour temperature of the light.  A warm white provides a soft glow, reducing glare, as opposed to bright cool white.

Deck Lighting

Deck lighting comes in various forms – light that shines from above, or light that shines up from below, and it is as important on your front verandah, as it is on your back entertaining deck.  This is particularly so if you have an elevated entry to your home.

Deck lighting, particularly recessed deck lighting which shines from below, is essential for keeping the edges of your deck or verandah well lit.

Driveway Lighting

Post lights, bollards, in-ground lighting, garden spikes and floodlights are all perfect options for driveway lighting.  From getting the kids or groceries out of the car, to making sure the outer edges of your driveway are clearly visible, driveway lighting serves multiple safety functions.

Outdoor lighting has come a long way over the years in terms of design and technology.  Today, there is almost as many options for outdoor lighting as there is for indoors, and the mood or look that can be achieved is every bit as impressive, even when lighting your exterior with security in mind.  A few simple details can make the difference between your house being kept safe from intruders, and staying safe for visitors.

Remember … your home is your castle, it’s worth protecting.