What’s The Best Security Lights For Surveillance Cameras?

If you’re looking for the most protection on the exterior for your residential or commercial building would be to combine LED security floodlights with a security camera. Security cameras on their own at night time may not be as effective as first thought. However, it is not as simple as just installing a security light right next to the camera may cause glare on the lens and deem them ineffective. In order to make your security camera and LED security light the most optimal, there are some considerations.

What’s The Best Security Light?

For an outdoor security light, you need to look for something bright, energy-efficient, and cost-effective. You’re probably going to be looking on amazon or in Home Depot for outdoor security lights. So, what’s the best way to find a bright cost-effective light?

Outdoor LED Security Lights are the most economical exterior lights. LED security lights are simple to install, incredibly bright, and have lifespans of 25,000 hours and over. One of the best aspects of LED security lights is that they now come as adjustable floodlights. Meaning their heads are more customizable and brighter than previous halogen outdoor lights.

Outdoor LED Security Lights vs Outdoor Halogen lights

LED floodlights to outperform halogen lights as they are more energy-efficient, more durable, and have longer lifespans. LED outdoor floodlights emit less heat while outputting much brighter beams for the energy they consume in comparison to halogens. The only drawback with LED security floodlights Is not performance-based, rather about their initial cost.

Here is a conversion table below:

As you can see the wattage consumed is almost not comparable for halogen vs LED outdoor lights. So purchasing LED outdoor security lights and replacing traditional halogens, will see an increase in brightness and savings in energy costs!

LED Security Light Positioning With Cameras

Install the security light above the camera. This will keep the light out of view of the camera when it is motion-triggered or illuminated. Security lights are there to supplement the camera not to interfere with it. So, installing the lights above the camera is the best idea. Have the lights point outwards and high to avoid glare onto the camera’s lens. This will enable your lights to have a wide and long beam coverage as well as your camera is well-focused and taking clear images.

Motion Activated Security Lights & Cameras

Motion-activated security lights can affect the type of security camera you use. Motion triggered security lights are great as reactionary lights that draw attention to your building. However, for some cameras, they can be a problem. This is because during the night time if the light is only reactionary and no constantly illuminated, the camera will need night vision to record what is happening in the dark. If your security lights are motion-activated, look for a camera that is infrared or low-light sensitive. To eradicate this kind of problem.

Brightness   

Brighter is not always better, especially when it comes to combining LED outdoor lights with cameras. If the light is overbearing or too close to the camera it is going to obstruct the camera's view and make the recordings impossible to see. It’s best to find a bright outdoor security light that can be simply installed a bit higher than your camera. Then you don’t need to worry about lumens and brightness so much. The number of lumens you’ll need will depend on the area you want to illuminate. But anywhere between 4000-6000 lumens at a relatively high height of 2.5-3m should be able to give the most front of back yards a good illuminance range. This combined with a 5000K beam and camera will make your images and illuminance clear in the middle of the night.

What’s A Good Light To Use?

SANSI’s 45W Motion Activated Security light is a great home exterior lighting option. It produces a bright 5000K beam and can be simply installed anywhere on the exterior of your home. This light has 4 working modes, D2D, on-time, and auto-mode. Each one bringing their own benefits. On-time mode combined with a camera is useful for constant illumination during the night. If your camera is basic and does not have night vision the light can remain on for up to 6 hours. D2D mode is also a reactionary and practical mode as the light illuminates and reacts to darkness outdoors. Making it require zero maintenance. These 45W LED security lights can produce bright beams with a reactionary sensor that allows them to protect the front or back of your home. Combining this type of clear light with a camera would double the security of your home. Safer Smart homes are what we all need.

If you’re looking to improve the intelligence and safety of your home, click here to learn more about SANSI’s official 45W security floodlight.