ᐅ Outdoor Lighting Planning with a Focus on Burglary Prevention

Hello everyone,

I would like to discuss the exterior lighting for our property/single-family home with you.

Attached are views of our house:

Street front with the main entrance (power outlet above the front door)

Terrace and garden (power outlet at the back of the house)

Side entrance and garage (garage to be installed) (power outlet at the side entrance to supply the garage)

Our plan

We want to install spotlights in the eaves boxes at the front and back (number still to be determined), as well as wall lights on the terrace wall (number to be determined), and a floodlight at the side entrance covering the entire driveway. Power outlets are already installed in the eaves boxes and at the side entrance (for the garage) outside. Security and burglary prevention are especially important for us. Therefore, we want the entrances on the ground floor to be illuminated as well as possible. We have decided to use motion sensors. Inside the house, we have two switches for manually turning the eaves spotlights on and off.

How many spotlights do we need in the eaves boxes?
How many wall-mounted floodlights do we need on the terrace? Should the floodlights illuminate upward, downward, or both?
Where is the best place to position the motion sensors? Which light sources should be connected to which sensors?
Or should we use dusk-to-dawn sensors, even though that would mean the lights stay on all night, which we want to avoid unless there are good reasons for it?
The garage also has an exit to the garden. Should we plan for an additional light source there?

Do you have any other thoughts or suggestions regarding exterior lighting for us?

Best regards

Rhyem86 schrieb:

Do you have any additional thoughts on outdoor lighting for us?

Rhyem86 schrieb:

Security and burglary prevention are especially important topics.

In the single-family home sector, more burglaries happen during the daytime than at night. Personally, I would avoid overdoing the lighting – after all, it is you who activate the lighting by being at home, or by having a lot of light, you draw attention to yourselves. These are the downsides, which, however, don’t help if intruders approach during daylight across open fields.

Light pollution is also an issue nowadays!

Floodlights often cause glare, while where you plan five spotlights in the boxes, one on each side left and right is sufficient. One wall spotlight centered on the gable side is enough. Windows are suitable for one centered light.

The best way to use lighting for burglary prevention is to simulate occupancy. In other words, turn on a light at a window that is clearly visible from the street. Ideally, avoid floor-to-ceiling windows, as they might allow passersby to see that the room is empty. There are also special lamps available that mimic the flickering of a television.

Even if you might think otherwise, burglars are not stupid... they check out a house several times before breaking in.
If the TV always turns on at 1:30 a.m., that’s suspicious.
And a poorly executed presence simulation can backfire because it signals that no one is home...
Such a simulation also requires a smart home system that controls many different lights, blinds, etc., to make it believable. For example, no one sits in the guest bathroom for 4 hours with the light on.

An alarm system and security windows rated at least RC2 are probably much more effective than just a few lights.
Oh, and if you install spotlights in the soffit, make sure your plaster finish looks good... every dent becomes highlighted, and that can look really bad. I have two negative examples like that in the neighborhood...

xMisterDx schrieb:

Even if it’s hard to believe, thieves are not stupid... they scout a house several times before breaking in...
If the TV always turns on at 1:30 a.m., that’s suspicious.
A poorly executed presence simulation can backfire because it actually shows that no one is home...
And for such a simulation, you need a smart home system that controls many different lights, shutters, etc., to make it believable... no one, for example, sits on the guest bathroom for 4 hours with the light on.

An alarm system and security windows rated at least RC2 are probably much better than just a few lights.
Oh, and if you install spotlights in the soffits, make sure your plaster looks clean... the lights highlight every dent, which can look really bad. I have two negative examples like that in my neighborhood...

Due to my profession, I can also tell you that you would be surprised how often boldness wins.
In this area of crime, quantity outweighs quality.
The “insider deals” make up the smaller portion.

In the end, the only effective measure is to reduce the building’s attractiveness as a target.

You need lighting anyway. I just think it’s a bit over the top here, with 10 spotlights, 3 wall lights at the front, and a floodlight at the back. All controlled by motion sensors anyway, since the idea is for it to light up only when needed and not stay on constantly.

I’m planning to buy wall lights with built-in cameras. Of course, they’re only somewhat practical because the cameras can be easily reached, but at least I can shout at the delivery person if they drop the package in front of the door again...

But that’s actually my point: this only really helps at night, and the camera is only useful for (very unlikely) investigations. The least attractive option for burglars is to have security-rated windows and an alarm system. I say this because I often get strange looks when I mention RC2-rated security… “Why? We have lighting and shutters…”

That didn’t stop thieves from stealing a neighbor’s painting tools when he still had a construction door, and where the property meets open fields, houses have already been broken into… during the daytime. The painting tools were stolen one night when two nearby houses had parties until 4 a.m.