Planning outdoor lighting, focus on burglary security

Hello everyone.

I would like to discuss the outdoor lighting of our property/single-family house with you.

Attached are our house views

Street front with house entrance (power outlet above the front door)


Terrace and garden (power outlet behind the house)


Side entrance and garage (to be installed) (power outlet at the side entrance for supplying the garage)


Our idea


We want to install spotlights in the eaves boxes at the front and back (number to be determined) as well as wall lights on the terrace wall (number to be determined) and a floodlight at the side entrance that covers the entire driveway. The power for the eaves boxes and at the side entrance (for the garage) is already installed outside. The topic of security/burglary protection is particularly important to us. Therefore, we want the best possible illumination of all ground-floor entrances. We have decided on motion detectors. Inside the house, we have two switches for manually turning the eaves box lights on/off.

How many spotlights do we need in the eaves boxes?
How many wall floodlights do we need on the terrace? Floodlights upwards, downwards, or both up and down?
Where is the best place to install the motion detectors? Which light sources should be connected to which sensors?
Or should we use dusk sensors, but then the lights would stay on all night, which we do not want, unless there are good reasons for it?
The garage also has an exit to the garden. Should we plan an additional light source here?

Do you have any further thoughts on the topic of outdoor lighting for us?

Best regards

Do you have any further thoughts on the topic of outdoor lighting for us?

The topic of security/burglary protection is particularly important

There are more burglaries in the single-family house sector during the day than at night. Personally, I would therefore not overdo the lighting – after all, it is also you who activate the lighting by living there or attract attention to yourselves through a lot of light. These are the downsides, however, which don't help if they come over the open field during the day.

Light pollution is also a topic nowadays!

A floodlight often causes glare, where you plan 5 spots in the boxes, one on each side on the left and right is enough.
One wall spot in the middle of the gable side is sufficient. Windows suit one in the middle.

The best way light helps with burglary security is when you simulate presence in the house. That means turning on the light at a window that is clearly visible from the street. Ideally without floor-to-ceiling windows, because otherwise you could see that the room is empty. There are also special lamps that simulate a TV.

Even if you believe it, thieves are not stupid... they look at a house a few times before they go in...
If the TV always turns on at 1:30 a.m., that's suspicious.
And a detected presence simulation is then stupid again, because it shows that no one is at home...
And for such a simulation, you need a smart home that controls many different lamps, blinds, etc., to make it believable... no one sits, for example, 4 hours in the guest bathroom with the light on.

An alarm system and security windows at least RC2 are probably much better than a few lamps.
Oh, and if you put spots in the roof box, make sure your plaster looks good... you highlight every dent, it can really look bad. I have 2 negative examples in the neighborhood here...

Even if you believe it, thieves are not stupid... they look at a house a few times before they go in... If the TV always turns on at 1:30 a.m., that is suspicious. And a detected presence simulation is then stupid again, because that shows that no one is at home... And for such a simulation, you also need a smart home that controls many different lamps, blinds, etc. to make it believable... no one sits, for example, for 4 hours in the guest bathroom with the light on.

An alarm system and security windows of at least RC2 are probably much better than a few lamps. Oh, and if you put spots in the roof box, make sure your plaster looks good... you highlight every dent, that can really look bad. I have two negative examples here in the neighborhood...

Due to my profession, I can also tell you that you would be surprised how often audacity wins. In this area of offense, quantity matters more than quality. The “insider deals” represent the smaller part.

In the end, only reducing the “unattractiveness” of the respective building helps.

You need light anyway. I just find it a bit exaggerated here, with 10 spots, 3 wall lights in front, a floodlight at the back.
Anyway, there’s a motion detector, it’s supposed to light up when you need it and not constantly.

I’m going to buy wall lights with an integrated camera. Of course, that only makes limited sense because the cameras can be easily reached, but at least I can shout at the Amazon delivery person if he just leaves the package in front of the door again...

But actually, that’s what I wanted to get at: that only helps at night or the camera for (the very unlikely) clarification.
You make yourself least attractive with security windows and an alarm system.
I say this also because people here always look at me like I’m crazy when I talk about RC2... “why? We have lighting and shutters...”

That didn’t stop thieves from stealing painting tools from a neighbor because he still had a construction door, and where it goes out to the open field, houses have already been cleared out... during the day... the painting tools were stolen on a night when there was a party in 2 houses here until 4 am...