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Just curious as to whether its rude to leave your porch light on all night? I live at the end of a dark street that has maybe 1 street light. Ive been switching my porch light on and leaving it on until I went to bed but then I started thinking that is obvious that Im going to sleep since I turn the light off... so now Im considering leaving it on all night but dont want to tick off the neighbors... curious as to what others do?!!
If the light is likely to disturb the neighbors (light pollution, infringement, etc.), turn it off. You don't need it to be on, after all. (And studies have shown that, just like everyone else, burglars prefer being able to see what they're doing.)
Check out the International Dark Sky Association (http://www.darksky.org/mc/page.do?sitePageId=55060&orgId=idsa - broken link), and you'll find the answer to your question. And if you MUST leave the lights on (and, trust me, they WILL bother your neighbors), look here for the least polluting fixtures possible.
I don't turn the porch light on unless someone is out. Then the light is on so they don't come home to a dark house. After they get home, the lights go off.
Only turn it on when someone is out and will return or expecting guests. I don't like a bunch of lights on. Some people do feel more secure with them and I understand.
I have 300w automatic lights in the back of the house and 60w automatic lights on the front porch that are on 24/7 with low light sensitivity so they only come on from about dusk to dawn when someone comes on my property (Or, in the case of some of them, when someone comes near it)
And I can see both from my living room, where I tend to be when I'm awake and at home, and usually check about 60% of the time to see why they've come on.
We have dusk to dawn fixtures (builder supplied) on the front of the house. Don't really use them. We have a Post light (builder supplied) by the driveway. Don't really use it. We have carriage lights on the garage (builder supplied) - don't use them.
We have 2 setting dusk-dawn/motion lights on our shed at the back of our property - use those every night. On low setting until midnight, after that they turn off and only turn on when triggered.
When we get to it, We'll replace the porch lights with that type (Dual-Brite is one of the trademarked names) and then probably start leaving them on.
Move to the country to get away and see the stars and immediately turn on the outside lights.
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