Home Security Lighting Tips

Lights are a burglar’s worst enemy. This is why often, burglars dress in black to blend in with the darkness. They learn to navigate by touch and rely upon their fingers for many things. If you want to keep the burglars and prowlers away, take your home’s lighting status very seriously.

Burglars are attracted to properties that are dark so they can be concealed while trying to break in.

New home automation systems connect your smartphone, PC, Mac, and tablet directly to your home lighting. Apps on your devices can remotely access and control almost every aspect of your home lighting.

An adorable home by Alan Mascord Design Associates.  The lights on either side of the garage door are a great idea for home security.

Being able to remotely turn lights on and off along with accessing security cameras brings huge peace of mind when you need to see what’s going on while you are away.

Devices that flip lights on and off via an automatic timers have been on the market for years. These devices also turn on TVs, creating the flickering effect in a living room, making a burglar think the home is occupied. When used with home automation, lighting can be set up via browsers or apps to turn on or off whether timed or when sensing motion.

Another form of burglar-deterring lighting is the motion sensor device. If a prowler starts creeping up your driveway, for instance, the light above the garage will go on because the motion sensor was tripped. These lights should be placed near the front door and between houses.

The back porch should have a motion detector, too. Animals can trigger these, so keep that in mind, but that just goes to show you how sensitive they are. More advanced devices, however, can be set at a high threshold so that small moving objects like a cat won’t set them off. These devices should be high enough so that nobody could tamper with them.

In addition, any walkways that lead up to the front door should be lined with lights at night. The patio area in the back should also be well-lit. Automatic timers can be programmed for while you’re away traveling.

Another way to use light technology is to install a device that flips on a bright light at a doorway entrance when the door is opened. This includes the garage door, so that if you’re going out at night, and a burglar or prowler just happens to be right outside the garage door, a bright light will go on as the door opens…which will very likely send him bolting.

You can go one step further and install a device that not only triggers a light when it detects motion, but one that sounds an alarm — something that you could use while away on travel.

This post is by Robert Siciliano, personal and home security specialist to BestHomeSecurityCompanys.com discussing burglar proofing your home on Fox Boston. Disclosures.