Innovation is everywhere: your most up-to-date guide on the different types of security lighting on the market today.

You’re lying in bed, and the security light goes on outside your window.

Do you:

1. Activate your panic room deadbolts and wait for the police.
2. Peer outside and wonder if you should investigate.
3. Roll over and go back to sleep. Bloody possums.

If you answered B or C, that’s evidence that these days most of us are pretty familiar with — even blasé about — security lighting.

Whether it’s a full-blown smart system or a solar powered DIY job stuck to your guttering, it’s an integral part of modern life. But it wasn’t always that way.

An Ultrasonic Past

The first motion detector used for home security purposes was patented in 1953 by US inventor Samuel Bagno. His ‘ultrasonic alarm’ enlisted the Doppler effect, reacting to the difference in the frequency of sound waves of a moving object. Today’s motion sensors work on some of the same basic principles only, well, better.

“PIR sensors [passive infrared sensors], often referred to as motion sensors, work on detecting heat and movement in the surrounding environment,” says Jake Short, Technical Support Officer at Trader GSM Electrical.

“You can adjust the light level (lux), sensitivity, time duration and detection zone — usually up to 18 metres. A multi-cell Fresnel lens is used to divide the sensor’s basic detection range into multiple segments or zones. When the sensor detects movement between the zones – especially people, animals and cars – it activates connected devices such as lighting.

“Recently, we’ve been seeing motion sensors fitted with a built-in manual override feature. This feature requires the sensor to be wired to a light switch. By turning the light switch off and back on within three seconds, the light can be turned on and won’t time out. It’s a feature that saves the homeowner the expense of installing a three-position switch to achieve the same results.”

(And no, it’s not just something for new builds. The best systems can be retrofitted into any home that has 240V wiring with a neutral in the walls.)

Tim Fant, Product Manager – Comfort and Energy Management at Schneider Electric, explains.

“The Wiser system incorporates a range of sensors and smart switches that can be wired to control lighting used for security purposes. Wiser is a scalable system that allows homeowners to start small with simple Bluetooth point-to-point control using timers or schedules, or they can scale up to a Zigbee mesh system to control their whole home from anywhere.”

We may automatically think of outside lighting when we consider security, but of course, having lights on inside the home is the biggest signal that someone is in residence and therefore not an easy target for crime.

“Wiser can be easily programmed to automatically turn inside or outside lights on and off at certain times of the day, to give the impression someone is at home while they’re away,” says Fant.

“When a Wiser Hub is connected to the Wiser system and the home internet, lighting can be controlled from Wiser via the Schneider Electric app while the user is away from the home.”

IN POSITION

No matter how smart your home, you’ll need to wire up your sensors to take maximum advantage of all the supporting technology.

“We recommend an installation height of 2.5 metres to optimise the field of detection,” says Short. The base needs to be installed on a level surface ensuring that water and dust cannot gain ingress.”

Although many outdoor sensors carry an IP66 weather-protected rating, be mindful that constant exposure to harsh UV sunlight can reduce the life of motion sensors

The gasket material between the lens and fascia can perish prematurely in these conditions, so if the installation permits, it’s preferable to position sensors under an eave.

And what about those possums? Will they continue to set off the sensors in the dead of night?

“Yes. Cats and other animals, people, cars, occasionally tree branches swaying in the breeze and heat generated by light globes can set off motion sensors,” says Short. “You can adjust the sensitivity of the sensor, but a reduction in sensitivity will obviously affect the detection zone.”