Many night sky activists cringe when they hear the term ’security lighting’. This typically means a big, bright, glaring fixture that’s on from dusk to dawn. These bad boys are often so powerful that they can dominate and destroy the night time looks of entire neighbors. Installed for ‘piece of mind’, these fixtures are typically some of the most environmentally unfriendly fixtures out there. Fortunately, security lighting does not need to negatively impact the environment or your pocketbook.
Checkout the NyteWatch from Stonco Lighting. TheNyteWatch has nice, low profile architectural lines so you can pretty much install it anywhere. But, what really sets the NyteWatch apart from other ’security lights’ is the way it performs. First, note the flat glas panels on each luminaire. These give the NyteWatch glare free, full cutoff performance. Full cutoff fixtures direct all the light they produce down onto the ground beneath them, preventing light from shining across property lines or up into the night sky. Up lighting of the night sky is typically known as light pollution, a growning (and expensive) worldwide problem. Light pollution is the reason that 3 out of 4 Americans can no longer see the Milky Way from their homes. Light pollution also costs us a fortune. Recent estimates put the number in the neighborhood of $10,000,000,000 (ten billion) annually for the US. Secondly, the NyteWatch makes use of advanced motion sensor technology to keep the lights off most of the time. Motion controlled lights only come on when there is activity in the area. So, when you arrive home from a night out, have company come over, or have un-invited visitors, motion sensors detect this activity and immediately switch the lights on. This allows you to have all the visibility you need, whenever you need it. The lights are otherwise off the remainder of the night which in many cases means most of the time. This can lead to substantial savings in your utility bills. The average homeowner wastes hundreds of dollars each year on ourdoor lighting that is illuminated more than necessary.
Checkout the accompanying image of the Stonco NyteWatch in action. Note the direction that the light is travelling. No light shines glaringly into your eyes. No light shines wastefully up into the night sky. Light is directed only where it is needed, onto the driveway below where it is installed. This is where you’ll be walking, and really the only place that your outdoor lights should be shining. Proper outdoor lighting allows us to move about safely and securely at night. Improper outdoor lighting blinds us with glare and robs our pocket books by shining in places it doesn’t belong.
