In just about every article I read from police departments about home security, they say that lighting is very important to help deter crime, and I can’t agree more! If a property has good lighting, the criminal is more likely to be seen, and that’s the last thing they want since being seen usually means getting caught.
But what is good lighting? Unfortunately, most people either over light or under light.
Light poles all around your house to light it up like a prison? That’s overkill even for a commercial property (I’ll talk about commercial security lighting in the near future), and you don’t want to live in a prison anyway. That much light outside, makes living inside your home uncomfortable, as well.
Maybe we should put a motion sensor flood light kit on the corners of the house. That should do the trick, right? We see this often, but the answer is – probably not.
What is the problem with the flood lights on the corners of the home?
1. These fixtures are generally operated from a switch inside the home located by the front door. If the switch is off, which is common, the lights won’t ever come on – doing no good at all.
2. If the floods are switched on, and are on a photo cell, then they are likely on all night — causing them to burn out fairly quickly and therefore, again, don’t work.
3. If the fixtures are on a motion sensor and are turned on at the switch, the fixture must be calibrated properly for sensitivity and time of illumination to work properly. Too much sensitivity and the lights pop on for every critter that crosses its path. Not set to stay on long enough, and a stranger disappears almost instantly. If this is done properly and the fixtures are working well, and the lamps are not burned out, congratulations! The corners of your home will have security lighting. But ONLY the corners of your home!
4. When the corners of your home have properly functioning motion activated “security” lighting, the rest of the areas are DARK. These dark holes make great hiding places for the experienced criminal. When your neighbors become accustomed to the light coming on every time the cat walks by, your up-to-no-good interloper will be able to move around fairly well in the dark areas.
What we know now is that the usual “security” lighting many of us have been familiar with for years might not be the greatest solution for warding off crime around your home.
So what is the answer?
To properly illuminate your property to discourage the unsavory visitor, you need an even, balanced lighting scheme around your property. This can be easily done with some well-placed path and area fixtures, along with some down lighting from trees, and some accent lighting for the landscape around your home. This lighting does not have to be, and actually should not be too bright. Most of it should be just enough light to detect any movement on your property, and it should be more intense in areas where your home can be entered.
Using this method allows the lighting to spread gently all over your property, eliminating the dangerous dark holes where criminals like to hide. This forces them to choose the property with no lighting (or the typical so-called security lighting that we described above as less than effective). The bonus part of the well-balanced lighting plan is that it also makes your home look especially beautiful, enhances your landscape and increases your property value — which none of the other security lighting options can do for you.
We service the entire greater Austin and Texas hill country area and would love to come by and see how we can improve the security of your home and property while also making it look fantastic. Contact us here.
