External lighting - driveway, garage, patio?

[Sturmundcalm]

We've moved into a "project" house. Empty 3+ years, everything needs doing pretty much - including a full rewire.

There's no working external lighting at the moment. The first electrician we've had out suggested two motion activated lights - one at the garage and one at the front door but I'm not totally convinced that's the best option.

The house has a (weirdly) long driveway - you walk the full depth of the garden and come back on yourself to get to the front door. I think we'd be better with some kind of light on the driveway for the winter when walking home? And I'm not sure about motion activated as I don't know if the light going off (eg because of cats or foxes) would make me twitchy??

And then I wonder if we should have lighting on the patio, but I'm not sure (excepting another lockdown!) whether we'd really use it in the dark??

Anyone done external lighting recently and got any advice? The house is very private and on a quiet street so trying to get the balance right in terms of security...

You could have lighting along the drive set on a timer to come on when dark and set to go off at bedtime.

Motion detection is even better - less light pollution so better for wildlife.

Sounds like driveway lighting would be beneficial/ even if it was low to the ground, just something where you can see your way along.
We have front lights outside (attached to front of house) they only get put on for a few hours in the dark nights, but it’s welcoming when you come home.
The patio lights I think we’ve used once - but they’re strong lights so not such a big deal.

Consider using Philips hue bulbs in standard external lamps, with a Philips Hue outdoor motion sensor.

You can then:

• Programme the lights to come on at sunset, and off at set time
• Come on when motion is detected.
• Dim lights, perhaps when having dinner outside
• Motion sensor can also trigger Philips Hue bulbs inside, i.e. Turn bathroom on if motion is detected after midnight.
• Works with Siri and Alexa
• Can link to some alarm systems. (i.e. go red if alarm triggered.)

Many other options, and not that expensive compared to the wiring etc.

From a security point of view dusk to dawn lights are recommended. Have a look at the Secure by Design website for products.
Ideally you’d not have your front door obscured however by the sound of it that’s not possible so having it well lit is the next best option. Have the driveway lit in the same way.
As you say sensor lights make you jumpy then you very quickly think it’s just a hedgehog/fox/cat and then don’t react at all. The lights then aren’t doing their job.

Our drive isn't directly in front of our house and literally looks like a gap in a hedge for the drive entrance. We have dusk till dawn lights and still have loads of wildlife on our drive. We also have motion activated lights at the top of the drive on the house and Ring doorbell and Ring cameras. The Ring cameras have flood lights but they aren't as reliable as you want them to be in terms of picking absolutely everything up. If we were to do it again we would hard wire in (did that at a previous house). We have a motion sensor porch light so when someone gets close it lights up but it is triggered by cats and foxes too.

I would definitely light the drive up every night, loads of options available for that.

thanks all - really helpful to get a range of views. we're cutting back all the overgrown greenery and looking at it again I think if we can manage to get permission (listed area) to take away the firs at the front door and then light up along the front of the house that would help a lot with the driveway in terms of ambient light so that we wouldn't need to add loads more on the driveway itself.

will explore all the specific recommendations as well :-)