Community protection General advice

General advice on lighting and light pollution can be found on the DEFRA website, and advice on installing domestic security lighting can be found on the Institute of Lighting Engineers website.

Before installing any lights consider the following points:

• Is lighting necessary?
• Could safety/security be achieved by other measures such as the screening of an area?
• Do the lights need to be on all night?
• Install the right amount for the task - for domestic security light a 150w lamp is usually adequate. High power (300/500w) lamps create too much glare, reducing security. For an all night porch light a 9w lamp is more than adequate in most situations
• Correctly adjusted lights only illuminate the surface intended and do not throw light onto neighbouring property. Set the angles of all main beam lights to below 70 degrees
• Make sure security lights are adjusted so that they only pick up movement of persons in the area intended and not beyond
• Direct light downwards. If up lighting has to be used then install shields or baffles above the lamp to reduce the amount of wasted upward light
• Do not install equipment which spreads light above the horizontal