Having home security lights that are not working properly can be annoying, especially as they are such a simple security method with not many moving parts.
After fitting outdoor security lights, a lot of people will think that is all they have to do to keep their home secure and do not think about them again. This set it and forget it approach is often fine, but you do need to keep an eye on your home security systems
When it comes to home security, it is important to find the right solutions that work for you, with the addition of smart technologies into the home you can protect your property much easier. To put this into context, Alexa has a host of security features that are designed for home security.
In this guide, we will be looking at a few different ways to reset your lights, we have provided various options due to the sheer volume of security lights on the market.
In sum, we’ll cover:
- Home Security Lights Basics
- Why Your Home Security Light Needs to be Reset
- How to Reset Home Security Lights
- Fixing Home Security Lights Summary
What's in this Guide?
What You Need to Know About Home Security Lights
Home security lights make up an important part of keeping a private residence secure, they are often paired with different security measures such as CCTV or even doorbell technologies such as Ring.
Regardless of how many lights you have, the addition of a home security light setup at your property will keep your house much more secure than having nothing. In fact, having motion sensor lights at your home is one of the major deterrents to would be criminals trying to break into your property.
On top of being a way to keep unwanted humans off your property, home security lights can also keep animals away from your home too. Depending on where you live this could be cats, rats, bats or this or thats.
A lot of people use home outdoor lighting to keep foxes away from their bins, so that is an additional benefit of installing security lights. Unwanted visitors is the key theme for home security lights, be that human or animal, either way you will have less footfall with an effective outdoor lighting strategy.
Pairing outdoor lighting with a gravel drive or path can reduce the likelihood of intruders even further, as burglars aim to be quiet and unseen, two things they cannot be in bright light and gravel crunching underfoot.
Reasons Your Home Security Lights Need to be Reset
Finding the route of your home security light’s problem is going to make it a lot easier to fix and reset your security system.
If you have recently installed home security lights, then you may have incorrectly set them up, so double check that too. Below are some of the most common reasons you may need to perform a reset.
Broken Bulb – we have all had to change a bulb that has gone out at one time or another, this is often the most likely case when a light is no longer working. This is a simple solution and could be the reason your home security light is not working.
Power Cut – a power outage can occur for a series of reasons, from the local power hub being down, bad weather, overloading a socket, a fault connection, animals biting or gnawing the cables or lots of other things. This can affect your home security lights’ effectiveness and usability.
Damaged Circuits – there are a number of things that can happen when electricity is involved. Although it is infrequent, an electrical connection can become damaged and make whatever it is controlling act incorrectly, a light could flicker or even stop working altogether.
Electrical Surge – a power surge normally happens when there is something incorrect or damaged within the system. This can be for a number of reasons but will affect anything connected to your mains, so if your security light is plugged it, it could need resetting.
Sensor is Damaged – if you have a motion controlled home security light, you may sometimes have a broken sensor. Sometimes, if you are lucky, there is just some dust, dirt or debris on the sensor which is causing it to not pick up things or incorrectly detect motion. This can be easily cleaned off and should fix this issue.
Faulty Light – sometimes it is as simple as the actual product is broken or damaged, this could be a manufacturer’s issue, in transit or even just through wear and tear. Having a faulty product or one that is damaged a lot sooner than expected can be frustrating, always keep if it is still in warranty, even if it’s not, it is always worth reaching out to the seller.
How to Reset Home Security Lights
Due to the sheer variety of home security light types, we have scoured the internet, racked our brains and compiled our knowledge about security systems to provide five of the most common solutions to resetting home security lights.
Depending on which home security light types you have there are some various solutions. Let’s take a look at these different options you can try when attempting to reset your home security lights.
Option 1: Find your security light’s manual
No two sets of home security lights are the same, so it is always worth checking the instructions, the manual, or in the box they came in.
On top of this, a lot of the manufacturers may even have their manuals on their websites, or a frequently asked question section that might help you get to the bottom of your light’s issues.
Option 2: Determine the reason
As we have mentioned in the earlier section, there can be a lot of reasons why your home security lights are not working properly. Finding out what the actual issue is means you will be able to fix the problem a lot easier.
Sometimes it is not always clear what the problem is, so it can be worth troubleshooting and working out what it isn’t to get a better idea of how to resolve the issue.
Other times it could be a deeper running electrical issue, in which case it could be worth calling out an installer to help troubleshoot the problem.
Option 3: Reset your fuse box
If your light is connected to the mains, it can sometimes be as simple as turning it off and on again at the fuse box. There are countless reasons that might affect your security lights, so resetting it at the fuses could be the solution.
Make sure you know which fuse it is connected to, and also keep an eye out for a tripped fuse, this could be the reason for your security lights not working.
Option 4: Rapidly turn it on and off
If you have a security light that is wired up to a switch then you can try this option. This is a common solution that often works for a lot of different security lights is to reset it on the switch.
You will need to turn the light on and off at the wall a few times with three to four seconds in between each flicker, on the last attempt leave it off for thirty to forty five seconds to allow the light to reset fully.
Option 5: Unplug your light
The fifth option for resetting your home security light is to unplug the power source, if this is at the mains, take the plug out or remove the power, if you have a battery powered light (and its removable) take the battery out and put it back in.
If you have a motion sensor light, then you can also cover the sensor then uncover it a few times to help reset the light, with a few seconds intervals between each.
Resetting Home Security Lights Summary
As we can see, there are a lot of different things that could affect your home security lights but also a lot of solutions that can help you effectively reset your security lights.
With the sheer variety and widespread availability of home security lights it is easy to find the right security measures for your property. It is important to note that home security lights are just one piece of a full home security setup, but are definitely better than having nothing protecting your home.
Understanding the options available to you can help keep your home secure with a lot less effort. Knowing that devices like Google Home and Alexa have features designed to keep your property safe, such as Alexa Guard, can give you more peace of mind when you are not at home.
