Security & Entry
Visibility without floodlights
A single bright floodlight makes a property less safe, not more. It blows out your night vision and casts hard black shadows that hide more than the light reveals.
Even, low light beats one bright light
The security value of exterior lighting comes from evenness, not intensity. Your eyes adapt to the brightest thing in view, so a 3000-lumen flood on the corner of the house sets your adaptation to that level and everything outside its cone becomes a black void. Anyone standing in that void is less visible than they would have been with no light at all.
Many low-output fixtures spread across the property produce the opposite result: no deep shadows to stand in, no glare to look past, and a consistent level your eyes can settle into. It is also the only approach that reads well on a camera, since most security cameras handle even, low light far better than they handle a bright hotspot next to darkness.
Motion response and dusk-to-dawn scheduling are integrated into the same system that handles the rest of your lighting, so there is one app and one point of service rather than a security product bolted on separately.
Where security lighting matters most
- Entry doors, side gates, and service access
- Side yards and blind corners between structures
- Detached garages, shops, and outbuildings
- Driveway approach and parking areas
- Ground-floor windows screened by mature planting
- Package drop points and anywhere a camera is already aimed
- Motion-triggered zones that brighten from a low baseline rather than snapping on from black
Dark-sky considerate, and neighbor considerate
Northern Nevada still has genuinely dark skies within a short drive, and a lot of Reno and Sparks neighborhoods take that seriously. Fully shielded fixtures that put light on the ground rather than into the sky are the standard we work to by default, and many HOAs here now require it in writing.
The neighbor question is more immediate. Glare crossing a property line is the most common complaint about exterior lighting anywhere, and it is almost always caused by an unshielded flood aimed slightly too high. Shielding, aiming, and dimming solve it — and a system that brightens from a low baseline on motion, rather than snapping from black to full, is far less intrusive to the house next door.
It is worth checking your CC&Rs before any exterior lighting work. We will read them with you at the design walk if you have them to hand.
What it costs
Security and entry lighting is quoted per project. What moves the number:
How many zones the property needs and how far apart they sit; the number of motion sensors and where they can be mounted with a clean field of view; fixture count, which follows the evenness goal rather than the property size; wire runs to detached structures, which are often the longest on a property; whether an existing transformer has capacity or a second is needed; and any integration with cameras or an existing controller.
Because this work usually overlaps heavily with landscape and path lighting, it is frequently cheaper to design them together than to add security lighting to a finished system later. We will tell you if that applies to your property.
Security and entry lighting across Reno & Sparks
Security lighting matters most on properties with distance and outbuildings, so much of this work is on larger lots — Verdi, Cold Springs, Sun Valley, and the rural edges of Washoe Valley, where detached shops, long driveways, and dark side yards are the norm. Hillside properties in ArrowCreek and Galena bring their own issue: grade changes that leave blind corners no single fixture can cover.
In Sparks we work across Spanish Springs, Wingfield Springs, and Kiley Ranch, where HOA rules on glare and fixture shielding are often specific and worth reading before anything is installed.
Get a security lighting assessment
Send us the basics and we will walk the property after dark to find the blind corners, the glare, and the places a single floodlight is currently doing more harm than good.
- Free after-dark assessment of the whole property
- Shielded and aimed to keep light off your neighbors
- Works alongside cameras you already have
Prefer to talk? (775) 451-3353
Security lighting questions
Is motion lighting or always-on lighting better?
Both, layered. A low baseline that runs dusk to dawn keeps the property evenly readable and removes the shadows someone could stand in; motion zones brighten from that baseline when something moves. Snapping from full black to full brightness is startling, less useful on camera, and harder on your neighbors.
Will it bother the neighbors?
Not if it is shielded and aimed properly. Glare across a property line almost always comes from an unshielded flood aimed slightly too high. We aim every fixture after dark and dial output down to what the space actually needs.
Does better lighting improve camera footage?
Usually, yes. Most cameras cope far better with even, low light than with a bright hotspot next to deep shadow, which blows out the highlights and loses everything else. If you already have cameras, show us where they are aimed and we will light for them.
What happens in a power outage?
Low-voltage lighting is mains-fed through a transformer, so it goes out with everything else unless it is on backup. If that matters on your property, tell us at the design walk and we can look at options.
Can security lighting be added to a system I already have?
Often yes, if the transformer has spare capacity and the existing wire is in serviceable condition. We test both before quoting rather than assuming.
Related services
Reno, Nevada
Let’s light it right.
Book a free evening walk of the property. You will see a fixture-by-fixture plan and a rendering of your own home lit before you commit to anything.