Construction Maintenance Electrician

3 Tips for Installing Security Lighting When You Become a Construction Electrician

June 19, 2019

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Outdoor lighting systems keep homes and businesses safe. When you become an electrician, you can help install security lighting systems that illuminate pathways and deter criminal activity. Some types of security lighting, such as alarm lights, can even alert building owners to the presence of an intruder.

A number of considerations go into creating an effective security lighting system, from seasonal concerns to where to actually place individual lights. Below we’ll look at a few tips for installing security lighting to help you succeed in your electrician career.

1. Security Lights Can Double as Attractive Ambient Outdoor Lighting
One of the benefits of security lighting is that it can easily double as ambient lighting. After all, both ambient and security lighting illuminate dark spaces and deter criminal activity. Path lighting, for example, is an attractive feature for walkways and gardens and also improves safety by ensuring people can easily find their way.

When choosing lighting that can work as both security lighting and ambient lighting, you’ll need to make sure the equipment you choose can manage these dual functions. For example, some types of lights aren’t suitable as security lights. High-pressure sodium lights, for example, look great because they create a soft ambient effect, but they also take up to a minute to warm up. That makes them unsuitable as security lights, which should be able to illuminate dark areas immediately. LED lights are typically the best option for lighting that is both aesthetically pleasing and works as a security feature.

2. Don’t Forget Seasonal Concerns When You Become a Construction Electrician
There’s a good chance that when you become a construction electrician you’ll be installing most security lighting systems during the summer months. However, it’s important to keep in mind how security lights will function during all times of the year. Spring and fall showers mean that lighting will need to be waterproof. Summer storms, meanwhile, can bring high winds and even hail, so strengthening lights with mounting brackets is often a good idea.

Of course, winter weather can be especially harsh. Not only will security lights need to be able to stand up to cold winds and ice, but they’ll also need to be placed where they won’t be buried in snow. Yard lights, for example, should be elevated so that they provide illumination even after a heavy snowfall. And keep in mind how security lighting deals with the shorter days during winter. Some lighting systems have to be adjusted manually to come on earlier during the day, for example. Other lights, like photovoltaic lights, can automatically detect when dawn and dusk are occurring and switch on or off accordingly.

become a maintenance electrician

Security lighting needs to take into account Canada’s four seasons

3. Lighting Should Be Placed at Strategic Locations to Enhance Security
The locations of individual lights make a big difference in creating an effective security lighting system when you become a maintenance electrician. Areas around shrubbery and corners that can provide hiding places for criminals are ideal places for putting security lights. Likewise, paths, stairs, and doorways should also be illuminated.

The height at which security lights are placed is an important consideration. Generally, they should be placed high off the ground beyond reach of anybody on the ground. Doing so achieves two purposes: it allows them to illuminate a larger area and it protects them from being intentionally damaged by would-be intruders.

become a construction electrician

Security lights that are placed high up can illuminate a larger area and are protected from damage

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