To any security operation for a building, piece of property / area, or a mix of both; we know that lighting can make or break security efforts. And when it comes down to it, we all know that having bad lighting can cost you big time if you get unlucky and slack in the lighting your facility or building has in and around it.
Specifically we are going to be talking about outdoor lighting in this post, and how outside security efforts can be compromised simply by bad lighting. If you are a head of the security team or a facility manager / building owner with security in place and know of this to be an issue to your building and it’s integrity, read onward. This post is going to bring light to why low quality lighting is bad in many areas, and what you can do to make it “good” again.
Why “Bad” Lighting Can Destroy Your Security Efforts:
It’s probably obvious on why bad lighting can literally compromise your security at your location. But to clarify, having bad lighting that is under lit or flickers can cause serious issues when it comes to identifying people through cameras or even face to face (depending on the severity). Not only will low quality outdoor lights lessen the chance of identified someone, it will lessen the chance of someone being seen at all in the first place. Flickering lights can affect the visibility because movement will be less noticed due to the lighting movement and flickers. By having steady light that does not flicker, your team will better be able to identify movement, if there is any.
What Qualifies “Good” Outdoor Security Lighting?
In short, quality security lighting is defined by being able to properly illuminate an area and not flicker or buzz; which will lessen your team's ability to notice movement through cameras or in person. The way we suggest to overcome these two issues alone is by switching to a good outdoor LED security lighting system that will allow you to illuminate at proper levels, cut out flickering lights, and on top of all that; reduce operating costs associated with your lighting fixtures.
Let’s cover what exactly outdoor LEDs made for security purposes can do for your building and property a little more in-depth:
Proper illumination. Often times when we first install a new light source, such as metal halide or Halogen, the illumination is adequate and proper. But over time, lumen depreciation kicks in and the light slowly becomes less and less. This causes underlit areas and proves to effect security efforts, especially outside. By switching your security lights to LED from metal halide or similar technologies, you will realize much slower and overall less lumen depreciation on your fixtures.
What is lumen depreciation? To clarify, it is the process of your fixture losing its overall light output. It does this at a much greater pace and overall more with metal halide and Halogen fixtures, while with LED it is much slower and overall less. It’s unavoidable with any lighting fixture, but with LED you won’t have under lit areas nearly as much as other lighting technologies.
No flickering. We’ve talked about how flickering can affect your ability to detect movement, and since LEDs will never flicker or buzz; you will never face this issue. Even near the end of a LEDs lifespan, you will never see flickers or annoying buzzing noises that far too often happen with Halogen and Metal Halide lights.
Lower energy used. LEDs will lower your energy consumption associated with your outside fixtures by 50% or more, depending on which products you go with and from whom. This will allow you to reduce costs at your facility and be able to make a return on your investment when making the choice to switch to LED over other outdated technologies. This is often one of the main reasons companies are making the switch to LED over others, but in the case of security at a building; it’s simply just an additional benefit to the security benefits that proper LED fixtures will bring to your building.
Conclusion
Don’t overlook your lighting in your security efforts. Protecting assets and employees is highly important, and overlooking the light in and outside of your facility can prove to lead to complications down the line. Security isn’t all about CCTV’s, alarms, and security teams, it’s about all of the little details that are often overlooked too. Don’t overlook this one, it could cost you!
source http://my-led-lighting-guide.blogspot.com/2016/10/bad-lighting-will-destroy-outdoor.html
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