When many people think of a home security system, the first thing they think of is an alarm or other piece of advanced technology. While those components of a system can play a major role in keeping your home secure, it’s important to remember that there are other ways to keep your family safe. Quality lighting can be very effective at deterring thieves or other types of intruders. If you want to improve the safety of your home through the use of lighting, let’s take a look at the two main areas you need to focus on:
Interior Lighting
If your family is like most, your home is empty for anywhere from five to ten hours a day. But just because no one is actually at home doesn’t mean you can’t give the impression that there’s activity going on in the house. By utilizing an interior security lighting system, you can illuminate an otherwise dark home during the early morning, middle of the day or at night. The type of lighting you ultimately choose will come down to exactly what you want to accomplish.
The main concern homeowners have about using interior lighting for security purposes is it’s going to significantly increase their monthly utility bills. While that’s a legitimate concern, there are two main reasons this type of lighting doesn’t need to have that unwanted effect. The first is that you can use energy efficient bulbs to provide interior security lighting. The second reason is that a lighting security system can be controlled by a central automation unit. Setting your system up in an automated manner means you’ll get all the security lighting your home needs without unnecessarily using any energy.
Exterior Lighting
It should come as no surprise that criminals with bad intentions prefer to operate in darkness. Even though it may seem too simple to be effective, lighting up the outside of your home can be enough to make potential intruders think twice about approaching your specific house. Many homes have backyards that are very dark. By adding lights, you can illuminate areas that would otherwise be pitch black. Keep in mind that for outdoor lighting, automatic solar options can be a very convenient and green way to start illuminating your home’s exterior and yard as soon as the sun goes down.
One thing to keep in mind is to be strategic about where you place your exterior lights. If they’re all in an area that’s easy to access, it’s going to defeat the purpose of having them in the first place. But if you place your outdoor lights up high or behind something that will keep them from being tampered with, odds are someone’s not going to take the risk of trying to mess with them.
By beginning to think of lighting as an option for helping to secure your home and keep your family safe, you’ll find that you start coming up with all kinds of ideas for using this strategy in an effective and affordable manner.
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Lynn Darsow is a writer that blogs for http://www.securitychoice.com/ which is a home security company with offices in SC.