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Heck, our across the road neighbor (about 3/8 of a mile away) has a lightened arena. When it was built, the neighbor that lived there then put special reflectors on it to direct the light down. When the place sold, the new neighbors took them off.
When those lights were on at night, I could go out on our back porch where we had a freezer and look for something in the freezer and find it, all without having a light on at our place. You can imagine what it was like inside our bedroom that faced that direction.
My back neighbors light is at least 100' from my back door. If it's on when I get home, I may give him a silent thank you for lighting my back door lock, but always with a curse that the stupid thing is so bright to begin with.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Albuquerque101
I think this is the best of both worlds -- there is enough light to be a deterrent at night but not so much that it bothers the neighbors.
Ae you sure? Because I bet the neighbor across the street from me doesn't think his light bothers me. But it picks up people on the sidewalk (far from his garage), shoots across the street and hits my (white) garage door and then bounces into my bedroom window that faces the rear of the property. Unless you've woken up at 3am wondering why someone is sitting in their car in your driveway, till you realize it's the idiot motion light from across the street, you probably wouldn't know.
Honestly, I think for the most part when people put lights on their property, they are aimed to pick up intruders or what have you. It's very easy to make your lights not bother you. But who ever thinks about their neighbors windows? Or garage doors for that matter?
We don't turn on our porch lights, I don't think anyone on our street does. We do have security cameras outside that will send alerts to our phones. We don't even lock the doors all the time.
We only have one outside light, above the back door. Rarely turn it on. I don't think there's a bulb in the front door fixture. We took out the motion light beside our garage. The location of our house is such that street lights are enough. I wish those weren't there, though. I like dark at night.
In our old house on the west coast there were motion lights all over outside when we bought it. After multiple times going to look at why they had gone off, and finding a startled deer on the sidewalk or a racoon sitting up looking like it had been busted doing something wrong walking across the deck, we took them down.
Like others have said, most break ins happen here during daylight hours anyway.
Porch light stays on at night but it doesn't do any good. I saw a group of teenagers pulling on our car doors one night. They saw the big bright light was on and did not care. If someone wants to break in or do mischief, they are going to do it. People are bold nowadays.
Porch light stays on at night but it doesn't do any good. I saw a group of teenagers pulling on our car doors one night. They saw the big bright light was on and did not care. If someone wants to break in or do mischief, they are going to do it. People are bold nowadays.
When I was a kid my grandparents lived in a city with a high crime rate. My grandfather's car was stolen right out of his driveway twice. The second time this happened, the thief also stole the enormous flood light grandpa had mounted on his garage
Years ago, Oprah had a reformed burglar on her show. He was then a consultant. He stated, if there is a dog at home, I would always skip that house. He further stated that home alarm systems did not deter him. Woof!
People who leave outside lights on all night are ignorant and selfish and inconsiderate of neighbors who have to yank their blinds all the way down to the floor to keep out their light so they can sleep.
Now that's quite a stance! Properly placed landscape lights should not cause any stress on the neighbors.
I live in a rural area with no neighbors close by. I never leave any lights on at night as I enjoy looking at the stars.
I have a gate at the road and a fence all the way around the house. If a criminal wants to park his/her vehicle at the road, walk 200 yards down a dark driveway, hop the fence, deal with the dogs, kick my front door in and get blasted with a shotgun I say "have at it".
Yup, similar situation for me, though the details differ. Fencing, gates, cameras, MDL systems, and “more.”
Nothing is guaranteed, but the more obstacles and risks of getting caught, the better.
Agree with NO. Very annoying to have all the pollution from lights on up and down the street when nobody is outside or going anywhere.
Why would you do that?
Going out? Leave a light on for when you return. Turn it off when you get home.
Landscape lighting? Sure. But turn it off at 10 pm when most people are inside and no longer going to enjoy your hardscape.
Security? Best is to leave it dark so when a prowler comes around they have to light the way and are more easily spotted. It's a fact. Leaving areas lighted just makes it easy for a thief and you won't see them as they blend in with the light.
I wish that people who use lights at night (including businesses and cities/towns/counties) would pay more attention to the issue of light pollution. https://www.darksky.org/light-pollution/
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