Boosting curb appeal, entertaining party guests, having something nice to look at—these things more than likely float to the top of your brain when thinking of landscape lighting advantages. What many homeowners don’t realize is that, apart from aesthetics, a fine-tuned landscape lighting system can be a home’s most effective ticket to hazard and intruder prevention. From path lights to flood lights, we’ll unpack different ways landscape lighting can supply your property with the utmost safety.
Outdoor Lighting Promotes Safety—and Insurance Companies Agree
Inclement weather and simply not paying attention can cause trips, slips, and falls, but it’s rarely mentioned that accidents can often happen purely from low visibility. While some smaller properties usually depend on streetlights to guide tenants and guests, most landscapes can benefit from additional lighting that makes people feel safe.
The padded safety landscape lighting offers is so effective that most insurance companies will reduce your homeowner’s insurance rate when you install specific types of outdoor lighting. The lowered risk of crime and injuries means less chance of insurance claims, prompting agents to incentivize customers with discounts. Whether or not your insurance provider offers a lighting discount, it’s worth noting the concerted push to wield landscape lights to more than an aesthetic advantage.
Ensure Protection with Path Lights
The most important reason to include landscape lighting in a home’s design is to identify and alleviate potential risk of tripping. One of the best ways to circumvent dangers is to ensure the areas with the highest likelihood of accidents are appropriately illuminated. When identifying these accident-prone hotspots, it’s a safe bet to place a high premium on pathways, walkways, and driveways since they’ll bear most of the foot traffic. Light installation is not just for your and your residents’ safety, but also for your guests since they’re not as familiar with the details of your outdoor spaces.
Install path lights to help avoid any concealed cracks, exposed roots, stray toys, or other similar obstacles that may impede smooth path-to-porch travel. Besides using path lights to flank a driveway or sidewalk, you can subtly encourage safety by placing lights in an adjacent garden. This maneuver not only increases safety with gentle illumination but also offers hints of beauty along the journey.
Incorporate Step Lights to Elevate Safety
As with icy surfaces during the winter, elevated areas are particularly vulnerable to accidents when people can’t see them adequately. It’s important to verify that sloped areas like stairs, hills, slopes, and rails are properly illuminated. A well-lit step light doesn’t just shepherd guests safely up a flight of outdoor stairs, but it also signals elevation changes before their foot reaches the first step.
Stitching a step light louver into your home’s landscape lighting design is both simple and affordable—and it looks good, too! The louvers and frosted lens prevent the light from glaring into the viewer’s eyes as they ascent the steps. While traditional recessed step lights certainly do the trick, low-profile louvers come with pre-drilled screw holes on the faceplates for quick, easy installation. Their earth tone finishes seamlessly mingle with your outdoor space’s natural essence, maintaining a strict focus on safety.
Deck Lights Assure Accident-Free Entertainment
Society has grown more sue-happy since Rob Lowe’s character Billy Hicks decried, “It’s not a party until something gets broken” in the 1985 hit film St. Elmo’s Fire. Today, when something or someone breaks, it usually means someone must assume responsibility for damages. With more landscape lighting styles available, there’s little reason for having dimly lit decks and patios, especially since these areas are often ground zero for hosting social events.
Securely placing lights under railings, benches, and pillar caps can illuminate social gathering areas with soft, subtle light meets and exceeds safety standards without being a nuisance.
Use Flood Lights to Deter Potential Intruders
Flood lights are the first layer of security and are often more effective than installing an alarm system as most alarms only sound after an entrance is breached. Implementing flood lights is a great way to both highlight your property’s most captivating architectural features and remind intruders of watchful eyes glued to their every move. You can also use flood lights to prevent dark areas and shadows and make it more difficult for unseen hurdles and perpetrators to cause an accident. Yes—even burglars have initiated and won lawsuits against their would-be burgled victims for damages incurred while breaking into their homes.
Flood lights don’t just protect your family and guests, but they keep your beloved pets safe. Coyotes, bobcats, wolves, and foxes generally attack at nighttime. Back in the Stone Age, cave people didn’t just use fire for warmth and food preparation—they also used it to keep potentially harmful animals at bay. For the most part, people can employ outdoor lights to deter crime, but much like hundreds of thousands of years ago, the light humans produce wards off animals as well.
Browse our selection of safety-first landscape lights or contact our customer service team to gain expert insight so you can suit your property with the ultimate tool for safety and security.
FAQ
Where are the best places to install security lights?
Though essentially any outdoor lighting fixture can remedy security problems to a certain degree, the best fixtures and locations for security lighting are downlights or flood lights above the garage and carport and downlights or uplights in decks and patios.
What color light is best for security?
Security lighting traditionally uses light temperatures around 4600 K and 6500 K. Lights closer to 4600 K are often used for path lighting or deck lighting as they help deter shadows without being too blinding.
Do lights interfere with security cameras?
Specific types of lights, particularly LED, can interfere with a camera’s image sensor since LED lights don’t constantly stay on, but rather flicker at a rapid pace.
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