There are few things more chilling than a home burglary. Imagine a stranger rifling through and stealing your possessions – to say nothing of the danger if you or your family members are home at the time of the break-in. Fortunately, you can take steps to deter potential thieves by using outdoor lighting to increase the visibility around your home. Today's inexpensive LED and smart technologies mean that you can create a system that is attractive, efficient and responsive without breaking the bank. Protect your home and your family with some of these outdoor lighting ideas.

A Light in the Darkness

Your outdoor lighting system should include lights near any doors and windows where a person could enter the house. "The biggest thing for any person who can burglarize a home is the ability to secrete movements," a Chicago Police Department spokesperson told the Chicago tribune. "This means darkness.”

Many outdoor lighting systems are easy to install on your own, although a few may require the help of an electrician for new wiring. LED bulbs are an attractive option because they use only about a quarter of the energy of incandescent bulbs and last up to 25 times as long. Some outdoor lights come equipped with a built-in security camera that will not only light up to scare off any would-be burglars, but also capture their image so you can notify police of the suspicious activity.

Stand-alone solar panel lights are a good option for walkways, although they shouldn't be relied on as a home security measure since variations in weather mean they might not always provide enough light to deter a prowler.

Getting Smart About Your Lighting

Smart lighting systems let you control your entire home’s lighting setup from your smartphone, even when you're away from the house. You can adjust timers, motion sensors, dimming functions or manually instruct the lights to come on or off. Certain smart lighting and security systems will automatically alert you when someone is at the door and allow you to talk to them through your phone no matter where you are in the world.

With smart technology, you can also add an extra layer of deterrence by having indoor lights come on for a period of time when you are away, giving the appearance that somebody is home. If you already have a lighting system in place, you can upgrade it to a smart system by swapping in some wireless smart switches and installing a control hub.

A Safer and More Attractive Residence

Lighting up your outdoor space is more than just a way to deter burglars. It can also make your yard look more attractive at night and help visitors safely navigate their way to your door.

If you need help planning or installing an outdoor security lighting scheme, contact your local electrician right away.

Antique architecture might be beautiful, but the electrical wiring in old houses doesn’t carry the same kind of charm. If you have an older home with an electrical system that hasn’t seen updates in a long time, you could be living in dangerous conditions without realizing it.

There are warning signs that may indicate your wiring is too old, but if you’re ever in doubt, there’s a fool-proof way to get an assessment of your system: Call in a professional! An expert will perform an in-depth inspection of your home’s wiring so you can be aware of the situation and the solutions for it.

With outdated wiring, you may notice strange signs from time to time. Some of them might occur with more regularity than others, but any instances at all can be cause for concern. In general, you’re at risk for having old wiring if your house is 40 years old or more. A few warning signs include:

Although old wiring can raise insurance premiums and keep you from using as many appliances as you’d like, the most important issue is safety. Over the course of time, the insulation surrounding the wires will break down until it eventually leaves the wiring exposed. The insulation protecting older wires doesn’t last as long as it does in newer installations. This means outdated electrical systems are much more likely to feature exposed wiring than those installed more recently.

With inner wiring exposed, the likelihood of short circuits and power failures goes up. Worse, deteriorated insulation translates to a much higher risk of suffering from electrical shocks or having fires break out in your home.

If you have any doubts about the wiring in your house, don’t take unnecessary risks. Ignoring the warning signs of an outdated electrical system can put you and your loved ones in danger. Beyond that, whatever money you might hope to save by not calling a professional would only go into repairs later on.

Maintenance Factor

Illumination Systems are designed to fulfill the required lighting level at the end of an operation term and not at day one of the new installation. The luminous flux of the system is going down over lifetime. This is a normal process, no product is lasting forever but the required illuminance levels should not be depreciated at any time. If a lighting system is setup, the maintenance plan has to be fixed too. So the facility managers know how often to clean the room, the luminaries and how frequently to change lamps. A reasonable time needs to be found between maintenance and operating hours, as maintenance cycles are connected to costs. The longer the operation time without maintenance, the more luminaries need to be installed to guarantee the required illumination level at the end of the term. The more frequent the maintenance cycles, the higher the maintenance factor, but also the related costs for the facility service.

Which Points are influencing the Maintenance Factor? Different factors influence the decrease in lighting level like the soiling of the room surfaces, the soiling of the luminaries, depreciation of luminous flux by the light sources or lamps failure.

Room Surface Maintenance Factor: The room surface maintenance factor is the ratio of the room surfaces reflectance before and after cleaning. It is the reduction of the lighting level according to soiling of the room. Luminaire Maintenance Factor: The luminarie maintenance factor is the ration of the luminaries luminous flux before and after cleaning. It depends on the luminarie construction and design (open housing or closed one) as well as on environmental conditions (dirty or clean). Lamp Lumen Maintenance Factor: The lamp lumen maintenance factor is the ration of luminous flux at a specific time compared to a new lamp. It is describing the aging of the lamp or the reduction of light intensity over time. Manufacturers offer comprehensive tables about their lamps luminous flux behavior. Lamp Survival Factor: The lamp survival factor depends on the service lifetime of a lamp. Some lamp lifetimes are reduced by frequent switching. The lamp manufacturers provide tables indicating the lamp survival factor. If a lamp is not working any more, the decision for immediate replacement or group replacement needs to be taken. If the lamp is replaced immediately (mostly in areas where the luminaire is easily reachable) the LSF can be set 1. On the other hand, the decision could be to replace lamps in special terms or group-wise. This could be the case in huge halls, where machines need to be stopped to reach the luminaires.

A maintenance factor of 0.8 shows, that the new lighting system needs to be over driven by 25% not to undercut the minimum required illumination level after 10 years. LED lighting systems are flexible and easy to connect to control systems. The installed load will provide efficient luminous flux at the end of the operation time but the energy that is “over” in the beginning can be saved. The new installation would illuminate an area with required 300lx by about 450lx. The energy can be saved by lighting management systems that are regulating the power concerning the luminous flux depreciation. HID lamps are not easy to control. The energy load that is “over” in the beginning is wasted. No change to save it.

Conclusion: Think carefully when setting up a lighting installations maintenance plan. This starts already with the choice for the light source. LED Modules are efficient, likely not failing and offer long lifetimes between 50,000h and 100,000h. The control possibilities are comprehensive. The luminaries overload, that needs to be installed to guarantee the end of lifetime illuminance levels, can be saved by light management systems. Regarding all the mentioned points, LED is the competing light source. The features are dominant over traditional light sources. Take the chance and install or renew your lighting system by  energy efficient LED light sources and luminaries. If you have further questions please contact the lighting experts at MyLEDLightingGuide.com and discuss products as well as solutions.

The world of lighting, LED specifically, can get overwhelming for those that are not directly in the space. From lumens, to watts, efficacy, and more; jargon and terms aren’t doing you any good if you don’t know what they mean.

Not only is it just about LED terms, but also general concepts, facts, and methods of LED lighting technology and the fundamentals that are important to understand to use LED to it’s fullest potential.

In this post, we’ve gather the 7+ “must read” LED lighting articles you should read if you want to understand LED lighting a bit more and be much better off when you dive into the industry and technology. Whether you are a facility manager, electrical contractor, or building owner; all of these articles we’ve gathered will certainly give some value and we hope you enjoy them all