Research has shown that crimes mostly occur at night. Most criminals prefer to strike under the cover of darkness, as they are harder to see in the dark. Every person who owns property should always consider this fact and keep their properties well lit as a preventative measure. While in some cases regular street lighting may be enough for your particular property, some street lights do not provide enough lighting.  This is because many times a property can be set further back on the lot, or ambient lighting may be dim. In this case, consider investing in flood lights to compensate for these problems.

There are many types of flood lights available on the market; however, the outdoor flood lights that are more commonly utilized are 250-500 watt tungsten bulbs. Many of them come with a built-in motion detector which turn them on automatically.These halogen flood lights should be installed in such a way as to light up any blind spots around your property where a burglar may be able to hide. Always make sure that your lights do not shine into the windows of others’ properties around you.  Also make sure that the flood cones are pointed down, because this will maximize the radius of the lighting. The best angle to hang a flood light is at 22 degrees, because it will keep everything lit in the area, and at the same time, it will not blind someone approaching.

photo credit: Micah Taylor

When using outdoor flood lights, there are a few things you need to keep in mind. If you do not use your lights properly, they may become more of a hindrance than a security enhancement. Keep the following considerations in mind:

1. Do not allow your  lighting to be at an angle where it may obstruct a driver’s view. Many accidents have been caused by poorly installed flood lighting.

2. If you do not install your flood light properly, you may actually help the potential burglar. For example, any potential witnesses could become blinded by the light because the lighting on your home was aimed improperly or because it wasn’t set correctly with a timer or motion sensing device.  Also if you set up your lighting and the radius of light doesn’t overlap, it can provide shadows for the burglar to seek cover.

3. Motion sensors which are built-in to your flood lights can be set off by wild animals, pets, and wind. This will cause false alarms, and the neighbors may become accustomed to your house being illuminated for no reason.   Make sure to set your sensors at night…to test them thouroughly.  It doesn’t make sense to set them during the day and then they end up not working at night.

4. 500 watt tungsten bulbs are expensive and inefficient to run. You may not need anything that strong to provide the illumination you may need. Some people are happy with only 60 watts of light.  Another option is to consider solar flood lights.  These run based on the sun’s power which is more energy efficient.  The down side is that the brightness of the bulb is definitely not as powerful in most models as that of a wired light.

Simply keep these points in mind when considering the purchase of flood lights – the only thing worse than being a victim of a crime is being lulled into  a false sense of security in and around your property.  Criminals don’t like to be seen so make sure to help keep them away with your security flood lights setup.