The floodlight instinct
The standard response to feeling exposed at night is a floodlight bolted to the
https://telegra.ph/Picking-an-Outdoor-Lighting-CompanyWhat-Separates-One-Outdoor-Lighting-Company-From-Another-09-17 corner of the house. The instinct is understandable and mostly wrong. One bright light gives you glare and deep shadow, and anything outside the beam is now less visible than it was before you installed it.Taken together, it points somewhere other than brightness. It is more fixtures at lower output, placed thoughtfully, aimed at the places that need it. It costs no more than the floodlight approach in most cases, and it works.
Coverage, rather than wattage
What you want is coverage, not output. Several modest fixtures do more than a single floodlight can. Even coverage takes away the dark edges, which is what you were actually after.
The overlap with the house
A permanent roofline system left on a low warm white lights the perimeter of the house every night. It puts a consistent wash down the walls and across the approaches, from above, which is the right direction. And because it runs on a schedule, it does not depend on somebody remembering.
Where the dark spots actually are
The dark spots are rarely the obvious ones. Do one lap of the property in the dark and look. Look at the places nothing currently reaches. That walk is worth more than reading about fixtures.
The motion question
Sensors work well somewhere specific. Used well, they cover a service area or a back gate that does not need constant light. Set too sensitive, they train everyone to ignore them, which is worse than not having them. The reliable base is steady, low level light, and sensors on top of it, not instead of it.
Your neighbors can see your lights too
Poorly aimed fixtures do not stop at the property line. A floodlight aimed at the wrong angle puts light through somebody's bedroom window, while doing nothing useful on your side. Shielding and aim contain it. It is part of doing it properly. Light that stays where it was aimed does more, because none of it is spilling into a yard nobody paid to illuminate.
Lighting and cameras together
Plenty of properties have cameras and poor lighting. Even coverage is what makes footage usable. A single bright floodlight creates the exact conditions cameras handle worst. Which means the same principle applies from both directions: spread it out and keep it consistent.A schedule matters here too. Run it at a useful level when people are up, dimmer after.
The next step
Security lighting is site specific in a way catalogs cannot be. EverCrest Lighting does security lighting as part of a full outdoor lighting plan for homes and businesses across Upstate South Carolina and Western North Carolina, from Greenville. Consultations are free. Call (864) 252-1732 or email
[email protected].