Do you turn off your exterior lights? Neighbors giving us grief about ours.

[Anonymous]

If I were breaking into someone's house, I'd go for a back entrance. So it doesn't make sense to me to just keep the front light on but not the back ones on if what we are dealing with is house security. For me, I could sleep through anything, but if lights bother me I guess I would just get proper window treatment and not encroach on my neighbor's right to keep his house safe.

[Anonymous]

We just keep the lights by front and back doors on all the time using cfl bulbs. We then have larger motion sensor lights by our garage and patio. Nobody complains. Most people have lights on all night. In DC keeping lights on is safer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Isn't this incredibly dependent on where you live? and how close you are to other houses within that area, too.

We live in 20015 in a SFH neighborhood. Everyone on my street keeps their porch lights on all night. Many of us keep a back porch light on too. A few of us have side porches with lights.

We live about 300 ft from our neighbor, with a line of trees in between.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn't this incredibly dependent on where you live? and how close you are to other houses within that area, too.

We live in 20015 in a SFH neighborhood. Everyone on my street keeps their porch lights on all night. Many of us keep a back porch light on too. A few of us have side porches with lights.

We live about 300 ft from our neighbor, with a line of trees in between.

are you the OP? if so your neighbor is really nuts. there are a lot of ways to block light, not just window treatment. a little eye mask like the ones that you get on airplanes for example (I confess I often use a black t-shirt over my eyes, works great and block everything so I can fall asleep. in my NW neighborhood, virtually everybody kees front and back lights on at night. unless your lights are abnormally high, your neighbor should thank you. he/she can't just refuse to put anything on the windows and expect the rest of the world to work around him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We leave ours on all night, as do everyone else on our block. Sounds like your neighbors need better window treatments to keep out street light.

we mentioned this to them but they said that they don't like to use blackout curtains. they like no window treatment or sheer ones.

If that's the case, it is their problem not yours. They ought to put up curtains if the light bothers them. Or they could move where there aren't lots of neighbors.

+1. Time to change window treatments A-holes.

[Anonymous]

And, really, arent motion sensors going to be more disturbing with random on-offs? If they are really disturbed by fairly low light, they're going to be batshit with a flashing light.

The douchey part of me would be tempted to switch to high wattage motion sensing lights, just to give them something to bitch about.

Okay, I probably wouldn't really do it. But it is tempting.

[Anonymous]

I find motion lights a lot more annoying, because then you have to actually look outside and see what is going on. Is it a cute bunny or deer or the neighbor's dog, or is it some sort of menace?

[Anonymous]

Ugh, the people behind us have lots of motion sensor lights on the back of their house that are so sensitive they go off if so much as a leaf goes by. They put these on a few years ago after adding a huge addition. Since our family room looks out onto the house it drives us nuts. We thought about banding together with our 2 neighbors who also have a good view of their house, and writing a letter asking them to tone it down. Sadly we never did so it's a little too late. But yes, I do find their bright lights highly annoying.

[Anonymous]

Choose your battles. They can always retaliate.

Signed,
Revenge is a dish best served cold when you have a bitter a$$hole for a neighbor

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If it is multiple neighbors complaining then I would think that it is a problem. I would be respectful and change it to motion. How is motion not reliable?

+1

We have neighbors with flood lights on all sides of us, and the one that is the least disruptive is on a motion sensor and actually pointing down into her yard. It goes off and on regularly through the night but since it is not pointed straight ahead at the side of our house it does not blaze through the windows waking us up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We leave ours on all night, as do everyone else on our block. Sounds like your neighbors need better window treatments to keep out street light.

we mentioned this to them but they said that they don't like to use blackout curtains. they like no window treatment or sheer ones.

If they really have just a sheer window treatment (or none!) in the bedroom then they deserve what they get! But I do have a neighbor whose bright white porch light shines through normal blinds and I think that's excessive.

A good test is to go outside and see whether your light shines on ground areas or structures that are not your property: if so, you should get a better (directional) fixture or a different bulb. If it's just that your neighbor can see a light through his unclad window, that's not your problem.

FWIW, I turn out my lights but am considering a motion detector.

Yes! Not the PP, but I always want to say to my neighbors that I am pretty sure burglars are not approaching your garage from halfway up my wall!

[Anonymous]

We told our neighbours to suck it up, grow up and buy drapes when they complained. We have a dog door and they first complained our dog was setting off our motion sensor but our dog slept in our room so they realized it was their cats. No way to change the angle of the light and the previous owners never put in a lightbulb. Tuff titty.

[Anonymous]

We had a small bit of crime in my otherwise safe neighborhood and I read recommendations to keep porch light on at night, but didn't know if it would be useful.

Guess I will go ahead and keep the light on.

[Anonymous]

Wow, I'd hate to have any of you as neighbors.

[Anonymous]

We keep front and back lights on at night - they aren't very bright and covered a bit by the porches. Security light at detached garage - uses the dimmest bulb we could find. Still plenty bright enough to see what's out there, but not blinding.