Outdoor Security Lighting: Motion Floods, Pathway Lights and Making Cameras Work

Cameras get all the attention, and lighting is the thing that makes them useful. A camera in the dark records a shape. A camera with a light on the same spot records a face, a plate, a logo on a shirt. Outdoor lighting is also the cheaper deterrent of the two. Here is how we think about lighting the outside of a house when someone asks for security.

Three kinds of outdoor light

• Dusk-to-dawn fixtures. On all night at a modest level. Porch lights, garage coach lights, a lantern at the back door. They let a camera see in colour instead of grainy infrared, and they make a house look occupied. LED means the running cost is small.
• Motion floods. Off until something moves, then bright. The right tool for a side yard, a driveway, or the back of the house. The sudden light is the deterrent and it also tells you something is out there.
• Pathway and landscape lighting. Low-voltage fixtures along walks, steps and beds. Mostly about safety and looks, but a lit yard has no dark corners for anyone to stand in.

Where each belongs

• Front entry: dusk-to-dawn on the porch, bright enough for the doorbell camera to see faces, dim enough not to wash out the camera. If the porch light is directly above the camera, it can cause glare; slightly off to the side is better.
• Driveway and garage: coach lights on dusk-to-dawn plus a motion flood aimed down the driveway. This is where vehicles are and where most trouble starts.
• Side yards: a motion flood on each side, high enough to be out of reach and angled down and along the wall, not across into the neighbour's window.
• Back of the house: motion floods covering the patio and the rear approach. If there is a camera here, the light should cover the same area.
• Steps and walks: pathway lights or step lights, on a timer or a photocell.

Choosing fixtures

• Wet-rated for anything exposed to rain. Damp-rated is for covered porches only.
• Warm white around 3000K looks better on a house than the blue-white of cheap floods, and cameras see faces more naturally under it. Save the cooler light for a work area.
• Adjustable sensitivity and duration on motion floods. Set to ignore the neighbour's cat and the tree branch, and to stay on long enough for someone to cross the area.
• Smart floods and smart switches let you turn lights on from your phone when the camera alerts, set schedules, and have the porch light come on when the doorbell is pressed. Our smart lighting post covers the switch side.

Wiring

Replacing an existing exterior fixture with a new one, including a motion flood, is a straightforward swap on the same box. Adding a light where there is none means running a circuit through an exterior wall, from the attic or from an interior box, with a proper weatherproof box on the outside. That is normal lighting work for us. Low-voltage landscape lighting runs from a transformer plugged into an exterior outlet and needs no wall penetration at all.

If cameras are going up at the same time, the lighting layout and the camera layout get planned together, and the cable runs share the same holes. Our camera placement guide and PoE vs Wi-Fi post cover the camera side.

Questions we get

Will motion floods annoy the neighbours?

Only if they are aimed at them. Angle floods down and along your own property, use shields where needed, and keep the duration short. A light that flicks on all night across the street is a complaint waiting to happen.

Do lights actually deter anyone?

A lit house with no dark approach is less attractive than a dark one next door. That is the honest version. Combined with a visible camera, it is a meaningful difference.

Can the porch light come on when the doorbell rings?

With a smart switch on the porch light and a compatible doorbell, yes. It is one of the more useful automations and it takes minutes to set up once the switch is in.

Get the outside lit properly

Wright Way Services installs exterior lighting, motion floods and landscape lighting across Newnan, Coweta County and Fayette County. Call (770) 301-4638 or request service.