Security Lighting in Leeds
Outdoor lighting that deters, illuminates what your cameras need to see, and does not annoy the neighbours. Designed and installed by qualified electricians.
Security lighting is the cheapest meaningful improvement most properties can make, and the one most often done badly.
The classic mistake is a single very bright floodlight over the back door. It creates a pool of glare and deep shadow either side of it, ruins your cameras' night footage, blinds you when you walk out, and irritates next door. It also announces that there is something worth lighting.
Good exterior lighting is usually several modest lights rather than one aggressive one.
What it is actually for
Worth separating, because these need different setups:
Deterrence. Making a property look occupied, overlooked and awkward. This is mostly about consistent, even light rather than brightness.
Seeing. Letting you and your cameras identify what is happening. This is about light where the camera is looking, at a colour temperature that does not wash faces out.
Getting about safely. Paths, steps, bin stores and gates. Frequently the reason people call us, and easy to combine with the other two.
Making the place look good. No small thing. Properties in Adel, Alwoodley and Roundhay generally want lighting that suits the house, not something off an industrial unit.
Lighting and CCTV together
If you have cameras, or plan to, this is worth getting right.
Cameras do not need floodlighting. They need even light without hotspots. A single powerful light pointed roughly at a driveway produces a bright patch, a blown-out foreground and an unusable image of anyone stood at the edge of it, the exact place someone will be stood.
Because we install both, we position them as one system: light where the cameras look, brightness your cameras can handle, and colour temperature that keeps faces recognisable.
This is the practical advantage of using one company for both. Most CCTV installers cannot alter your lighting, and most electricians are not thinking about what the camera sees.
Dusk to dawn, and why halogen has gone
Two things have changed in outdoor lighting, and both point the same way.
LED replaced halogen. Old halogen floodlights consumed enormous power, ran hot, failed often and produced a harsh light. LED uses a fraction of the electricity, lasts years, and can be specified for a warmer, less hostile light.
That efficiency changes what is sensible. Running a halogen floodlight all night was unthinkable. The cost of it was the whole reason sensors existed in the first place. A modern LED will run from dusk until dawn for very little.
So dusk to dawn is our default. A property lit consistently every night looks occupied and overlooked, which is most of the deterrent. A light that snaps on when somebody reaches the back door only tells them they have been noticed once they are already there, and it hands your cameras a sudden exposure change at the exact moment you want a usable image.
Sensors still have their place: outbuildings, side passages, bin stores, and anywhere a light burning all night would irritate a neighbour more than it deters anyone. We fit them where they earn their keep rather than by default.
Not upsetting the neighbours
Worth raising because it causes genuine disputes.
Badly aimed exterior lighting spilling into a neighbour's bedroom window is a real problem, and in some circumstances can amount to a statutory nuisance. It is also entirely avoidable.
We aim lights down and at your own property, use shields or baffles where needed, and choose beam angles that put light where you want it rather than across a boundary. It takes a few minutes at installation and prevents years of friction.
What we install
- LED floodlights and wall lights, domestic and commercial
- Sensor-activated and dusk-to-dawn lighting
- Path, step, driveway and garden lighting
- Bollard and wall-recessed lighting
- Lighting integrated with an Ajax system, so it can respond to alarm events
- Commercial and car park lighting
- Replacing tired halogen installations with LED
Common questions
On its own it is not a barrier, but a well-lit, clearly overlooked property is a less appealing prospect than a dark one next door. Combined with visible cameras and an alarm, it makes a difference. As a substitute for those, it does not.
Not meaningfully with LED, and that is precisely why we default to dusk to dawn. A modern fitting uses a small fraction of what the equivalent halogen did, so running it from dusk until dawn costs very little, considerably less than the old halogen cost even switching on and off.
Yes. Lighting can respond to alarm events, which is a genuine deterrent and useful for your cameras at exactly the moment it matters.
Not if the sensors are chosen and positioned properly. Poor sensor placement is the usual cause of nuisance triggering, and it is fixable.
Yes, and it is one of the most worthwhile small jobs we do. Lower running cost, better light, longer life.
Very rarely for domestic exterior lighting. If your property is listed or in a conservation area, mention it and we will look into it before we quote.
Yes. Commercial and car park lighting is a core part of our electrical work.
Book a security survey
Tell us about your property and we will arrange a visit. No obligation, and no hard sell.