Three Tips for Safer Outdoor Lighting This Halloween

Halloween is nearly upon us, and if you live in a neighborhood with even a small amount of kids, there’s a good chance you are probably well-accustomed to receiving several knocks on your door from candy-seeking trick-or-treaters. Even with the pandemic still going on, it is widely believed that young trick or treaters will be taking to the streets for the annual traditional celebration, and that means you can expect the knocking to continue.

In addition to stocking up on your typical stash of Halloween candy (or whatever else it is you choose to give out), that also means you should make sure your property is prepared for visitors. Every year, people of all ages are accidentally injured by running into something they couldn’t see or tripping over a hazard that was shrouded in darkness. That’s not a good thing, either—you could find yourself on the hook for their injury expenses if they are injured on your property due to a legal statute known as “premises liability.” If you want to avoid that liability, that means you need to make sure your property is well-lit and easy to navigate, and the way to do that is with solid outdoor lighting.

Are you looking to improve outdoor visibility for the Halloween season? Looking to brighten up your home for the months ahead? This blog has some helpful tips and bits of advice you can follow for more beautiful and effective outdoor lighting.

Change Burned-Out Lightbulbs

The common knowledge and practice for Halloween is that if you are welcoming trick-or-treaters to your door, then turn your porch lights on. If you want them to stay away, then turn the lights off. However, that doesn’t do you a lot of good if the lights in your porch lamps are burned out. Porch lights can burn out over time—the changing seasons and hours of running will take their toll on any lightbulb. If one of your bulbs has burned out over the preceding spring or summer seasons and you haven’t changed it out yet, now is the time to do it.

Consider a Motion-Activated Floodlight

Motion-activated floodlights provide two big benefits: added security and added safety for visitors. From a security perspective, floodlights cast a ton of illumination on areas of your property that might be dark. That gives any potential intruders nowhere to hide when they are trying to break into your home, thus making their job a lot more difficult to do without being seen.

From a safety perspective, these lights can also provide a steady quantity of light, but only when it is needed. A bright floodlight can be disruptive to neighbors, but a motion-activated light only turns on when it detects someone or something in the vicinity. That way you can keep your light shut off when it isn’t needed and then have it automatically turn on when it is. This keeps property visitors safe while saving you energy and keeping your neighbors happy.

Properly Light All Trip Hazards

Over time, it’s not uncommon for things like tree roots or large plants to start to intrude on walkways or paths on your property. This can cause concrete slabs to buckle and lift, or general unevenness to form. During the Halloween season, however, that may have changed on your property. Halloween decorations are becoming more and more prevalent, and many of these powered decorations require a constant source of power. Therefore, it’s not unusual to have extension cords adding to the potential trip hazards that may already exist.

The extra cords may be fine during daytime when they are clearly visible, but they tend to hide at night when visitors can’t see what’s beneath their feet. Therefore, if you are expecting to have visitors, be sure to improve lighting around these cords so people can see them clearly. It is also a good idea to tape all cords down securely to prevent them from becoming tangled in someone’s feet. Do this with brightly-colored tape as well to ensure better visibility.