Seasoned burglars will realise that good security lighting is a significant deterrent to their planned activities and an important aspect of making a home safe. The fitting of external lights is also an early warning to the aspiring burglar that the householder takes their security seriously, encouraging them to move on to another more vulnerable home. Sadly many property owners do not consider their external lighting as an integral part of their burglar prevention activities. Wherever you live, you should always see to it that you have external lighting installed and that the lights are out of easy reach for any uninvited visitors.



There are several lighting options to think about covering various areas of your home. You need to assess your property through the eyes of a burglar, understand its weaknesses and then use the guide below to decide what lighting you are going to install.

Main Entry Door Lighting

The lighting that is around the doors of your property is one of the most important parts of your home security plans. Most burglars like to focus on entry doors before anything else, they offer easy entry and exit routes if not adequately protected. To improve the security of your doors consider any lighting at all to be better than no lighting. If a burglar sees lights illuminating the door areas the chances are he will select another property to visit, lighting increases his chances of being seen. If the lights are off and the door area is in the shadows the burglar will more than likely proceed with his plans.

Front Garden and Driveway Motion Detectors

Motion activated lights can make your front garden a problem area for a potential burglar removing their ability to approach your home unseen. If you are planning to use motion detectors in the front garden, you should make sure that you have tested the installation locations carefully. You will annoy neighbours and lessen the surprise lighting effect if people walking by, or kids playing in the street, can easily trigger the sensors.

Rear Garden Protection

For the exterior of your home external lighting is definitely a good idea. The rear of the house is not seen by passing traffic affording a burglar more time to try to gain entry to your home. If you have a secluded rear garden, you should always make sure that you use motion-detected lights. If you have a very large garden you can always connect an alarm to the lights. This way if someone was to move through your garden, the lights would sound the alarm. Burglars do not like alarms and they will normally leave the area the instant they hear an alarm sounding. To avoid false alarms generated by neighbours cats adjust the detector sensitivity to only react to a large object.

Garage and Carport Lights

If you own a garage, you should always consider installing an automatic garage opener and garage lighting. Once the doors are activated they can also automatically turn on the garage or drive lights. This will prevent anyone hiding inside or near to your garage and planning to surprise you when you exit the car. Your carport is also important area for improving home safety. You can also use motion-detected lights in this area as well. When these lights detect any type of movement in your driveway they will automatically turn on, which could easily startle a burglar.

Save Energy with Solar Lighting

Recently solar lighting has become inexpensive and it is friendly to the environment. If you have any dark areas you can buy a small solar powered light. It will charge by sunlight during the sunshine and illuminate those shadowed areas at night without you needing to switch on the light or use a timer. This is another simple method to make your home less vulnerable to the local burglars.

Remember Burglars Dislike Lights

Burglars thrive in dark secluded locations. Having increased and motion triggered lighting around your home will go a long way in keeping your property safe. Thieves do not like to be seen which is why lighting is important. If you do not have external lights around your home you should consider amending this soon. You do not need to install a sophisticated lighting system, all you need is enough lighting to make a burglar think twice about breaking into your home.