House security lights

realspeed

realspeed

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Bazza
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In the last few months a house in the road opposite our back garden has had fitted very bright security lights that actually light up every room in the back of our house. That is 3 bedrooms a lounge and dining room light up like daylight.



So just now got so fed up I went over to have a gentle word. The lady age 84 came out and explained the problem and pointed out that security lighting has to be confined to within their boundary. She said sorry she will get the installers to alter them, which I thought was nice of her, all very friendly and amicable.

Then out came her 86 yr old husband with a very aggressive attitude for no reason at all wanting to know what was going on. So I explained to him and boy did he let fly. No need for it at all. I
did say I could have gone to environment health people or taken out a court order, but that is not my style. His attitude was really very abrasive and went in then came out and said their i have switched the bloody lights off now. why such an aggressive attitude? I could have easily made it so much more aggressive myself bu i didn't having had to put up with this for several months

They say about the rudenes of the younger generation but the older generation are far worse.


This is the offending house
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And one of the two high powered lights direct at my house. Must be at least 500 w if not higher in led terms


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His attitude does seem strange.

What amazes me is that a light that far away can light up rooms in your house and it doesn't even look to be pointing directly at you!
 
I've had a similar issue although on the other foot. Installed some new LED security lights, front and back, not much power. Tested at night and the main beam of light just about covers the garden. It's pointed downwards. But one of the neighbours behind and a few doors away complained. Neighbour directly behind us doesn't notice anything. We lowered the height of the light and not heard anything. They've since put up their own security light to cover their garden.
 
Mark I know but honestly you could read a book by them at night in any of the bedrooms. These although small are like searchlights, whatever the wattage output they are far too powerful for domestic use, more for covering a compound.

You would have been amazed if I had taken a picture of one of the bedrooms with the amount of light in it. All it needs is for them to be tilted downward but the pratts who installed them put a junction box right underneath so they can't be tilted
Don't get me wrong I have no objections to security lighting as long as they are installed according to the law, which say the light must not extend past the property boundary.
I have 2 security lights on the front of my garage and the beam extends out about 15 foot. That is sufficient to deter anyone
you can just see them on the garage pillars

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Not doubting you for one minute, like you say they are just angled wrongly. I've got a 500W PIR at the back of my property mounted at 1st floor level but angled down towards the garden, it lights it well but doesn't extend beyond my boundary.
 
I have a 500w security light at high level which was there when I bought the house, when it is on I get planes for City Airport circling so I leave it off unless I am going into the garden :) A friend who was troubled by a light shining into the back of his house installed a large parabolic mirror to reflect the light back.
Regarding the aggressiveness as an oldie myself I find that I am more tolerant now, except towards anyone I do not like,
 
Well the the so called 'installers' were clearly clueless as setting the lights up correctly is not rocket science.
My girlfriend has the nastiest misserable old bugger for a neighbour, we've got a bunch of idiot teenagers hanging around in the local park getting stoned, throwing beer cans on the ground a few feet from the bins then vandalising the bins.
Sadly in this day and age not all older people are nice, whether it's just because they are grumpy I have no idea.
A good friend of mine who is far less torlerant that most people tried really hard (trust me that is a lot of effort for him) to ask a neighbour behind him to adjust their security light in the their back garden as it was shining into my friends bedroom windows.
The neighbour refused to get it realigned so one night my friend went over with a ladder, cut the wire, removed the light and threw it on the ground.
Whilst I can't condone his actions I can understand when people are pushed to the limits, the neighbour probably knew it was my friend but never questioned him over it.
 
I know the best advice is always try to maintain at least speaking terms with neighbours and avoid getting officialdom involved but if the lights are causing a nuisance then maybe the council need to be advised.....................afteral if the street lights can have a 'flag' or gobo fitted to stop exactly what the O P is suffering from, then why not insist on the simple expedient of 'realignment' i.e. why not push harder to make it happen???

PS not too sure about a parabolic reflector but what about a sheet of metallised mylar film hung between the two trees as a reflector that might bathe the whole of their house with their own lights output???
 
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