come toward the light

Funny story (at least to my wife and I)...

We just moved into a new custom home a few weeks ago. After a night or two, the neighbor woman came over and asked us for a favor. She asked if we could NOT leave our floodlights on all night long anymore. She said she and her husband have had to sleep with blankets over the windows.

For those who have not seen our house. We wanted plenty of exterior light, so our electrician custom designed a 5 way switch feeding into 7 dual bulb floodlights on the outside. 5 of these 7 lights point... pretty much right toward the neighbor's house...

hehehe

So ya met the neighbors huh? You could give them brochures about window darkening treatments or blackout shades. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/yellowlaugh.gif I know some people have their outside lights on a motion sensor, but I would think that the lights cycling on and off everytime a stray cat or dog or coon walked by would be even more distracting than constant lights.

Hopefully you won't make an enemy out of them (because of their "light sensitivity"), but frankly all they need to do is spend a little money on thicker curtains or a roll-up room darkening shade, and they can sleep again. Better than getting pissed at their new neighbors IMO. Heck I worked nights for about 6 years, and I'm going back on nights in a couple months. I guess I could maybe pray to God and ask him to make it really cloudy when I sleep? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif Nah, my wife made some thick dark curtains and they block out about 95% of the light (sun). Works for me.

-Keith

wtf?

"Excuse me sir, could you not use your outdoor floodlights for what they were developed to do, and what you paid for them to do? Thank you."

Yeah, we're still laughing. Perhaps she will understand when they actually come inside our house and see all my lights.

Darrel will be proud... except for 4 bulbs, our entire house is fluorescent.

I'm stumped. What's funny?

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Empath said:
I'm stumped. What's funny?

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Light pollution is funny? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thinking.gif


Peter

I should put up a picture. With the house on a hill and all the lights on, it looks like a spaceship has landed.

Aren't the words "light pollution" like blasphemy around here? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Turbodog;

Those are dirty words around CPF. The last apartment I had, the security light was 8 feet away from my bedroom AND facing my bedroom. It took nearly every blanket I had to get the light level down to reasonable.

Maybe you are getting a taste from your neighbors just how annoying these things can be. Show consideration for them, otherwise, if a complaint is filed, the judge will show consideration for them and not for you.

In the case of the security light mentioned above, the landlord's placement of the light was faulty: it was staring me in the face at eye level, when it should have been above the building.

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turbodog said:
5 of these 7 lights point... pretty much right toward the neighbor's house...

hehehe

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Why?

These people are undoubtedly going to be your neighbors, are you sure you want to **** them off from the very get go?

If you were my neighbor you would go broke putting bulbs back in those lights /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/jpshakehead.gif

Excessive light leaving one's property may show the same disregard for your neighbor's rights as allowing the smell from burning garbage or loud sound from playing garbage to reach unreasonable levels. More communities are limiting the amount of light that can emanate from outdoor luminaries.

Once upon a time I could use my telescope from the backyard. Now I must go outside of my very small town because all the neighbors installed motion sensing flood lights. Yes, there is such a thing as too much light.

Perhaps ask if rather than bright lights they would prefer double taps from a semiauto, the lights were installed for security, their choice.

Hmmm, I see we seem to have 2 different camps here. For those keeping score, we live in the county where there are no ordinances/etc for or against this. All the neighbors do the same thing through the entire neighborhood. The complainers are just used to it being dark from the direction of our house. They'll adapt soon enough I'm sure.

As far as making good neighbors goes, if I were asking someone for a favor I would at least introduce myself first and say hello.

You know, it's all in the presentation. We put these lights up and were considering whether or not to leave them on 24/7. After having them on that first night, we had pretty much decided to leave them off. Now, after their snippy little attitude, I am more prone to leave them on. If she had been a little more polite we would have gone out of our way to turn them off. Now we go out of our way to leave them on.

You can see the lights from afar (sort of like an arc aaa), but no real light reaches their house. I mean, there is over 6.5 acres between us and them.

Turbo, let's assume that your neighbors are being extreme in their expectations and that they are aren't friendly, to boot. Some folks just don't have great social skills or are uncomfortable with change. You could still set a good example for them, even if they don't deserve it, and not let the lights on 24/7. You'd save a few bucks that would be better spent on...A NEW FLASHLIGHT - now that's a win/win situation. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Over six acres, unless you have spot lights pointed at their house they need to get over it. I assumed that we where talking twenty to thirty feet as in most subdivsions.

Why would you leave outdoor lights on 24/7? Does your house really need DRL's? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinser2.gif
6.5 acres isn't a distance it's an area (283140ft² to be exact) that could be in innumerable configurations. 1 foot wide by 283140 feet long? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif What's the distance between houses?

My house has no exterior lighting & it sux...been wanting to add but now looks like I may sell & shack up with my honey instead. She has great lights. On her house I mean /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/jpshakehead.gif

Hmmm, now I see the light!

Now that you mention it, I am on the pre-order list from lambda.

I think these guys are light-phobic (the horror). Like I said, (most) everybody (95%+) in the neighborhood leaves their exterior lights on 24/7. The few that do not, at least leave on a porch light or some architectural lighting. These guys... their house is pitch black. I'm talking not even a light left on over the kitchen sink!

Weird!

patrick: No, we're not what anyone would call close. Most lots are squarish or a 1:2 ratio rectangle. We've got 6.5 acres. Their lot is 3+ acres. Guy across the street has a 14 acre lot. This subdivision is approx 200 houses on God knows how many acres.

macgyver: Yes, I know what distance and area are. Actually it's a strip .5mm wide times 14 bazillion parsecs long. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif After I turn the lights off, it takes 5 minutes for the dark to reach them. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Lightphobic,huh? You may have a vampire infestation in your subdivision.
Your neighbors could use some creative landscaping to block their view of your exterior lighting.I planted fast growing(and beautiful) cypressus to block my neighbors lighting(good for me) and block their views (revenge can be sweet). /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif. But I live in a much more urban setting.

LMAO! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

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bgenlvtex said:
If you were my neighbor you would go broke putting bulbs back in those lights /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/jpshakehead.gif

[/ QUOTE ] Violence is not the answer. Not towards living beings, not towards non-living things.

Besides, i'm sure in Texas they have adequate property protection. Mess with my lights/property, get a shot of what Texas is famous for.