Do these:

– actually discourage intruders from wandering around outside your property?

– only function to annoy your neighbours?

– merely provide helpful illumination for someone to break into stuff by?

Thoughts?

So I can see where my dog is

D) Enable me to see the low wall next to my drive so I don’t reverse into it, but not annoy the neighbours and waste electricity by being on all night.

House opposite us has handily placed it next to their boiler flue and pointing into our bedroom, so it goes on and off at 30 second intervals until about midnight when their heating switches off.

They’re handy for putting the bins out when it’s dark (and lighting the front steps up when coming home late at night)

They can be very irritating if the bloke opposite has one that is wind activated and not area set properly, this seems to be down to the installer though.

You can now get camera ones that appear to allow you to define the pir area in much more detail and alert to your phone etc. If I can find one that isn’t subscription pay model (to get the camera footage) and has an app light on off switch etc I’d be tempted to upgrade.

I use them for my benefit rather than deterrent. Mine are all on a short timer (30 secs at most) low wattage and in the main low level so not intrusive. The only security lights I’ve got are LED floods which I have an external switch for if I need more than path lighting.

As for security or deterrent, maybe, probably not.

Can anyone recommend any decent solar powered ones? Preferably with a separate, wired solar panel so I can put the lights in the alley and the panel facing the sun. I’ve been disappointed with the quality of my last few eBay purchases. They would help massively with putting the bins out.

We do have one on the back of the house but even with it pointed right down at the ground, when I flick the switch I can see it illuminate the back of about 6 houses which face ours. I don’t want to be that guy so it stays off.

I recently put one of these above my garage. Not for security really, but so I can see what I am doing on the drive. Works really well. The cable for between the panel and lights is long enough so you can mount the panel in a sunny position, away from the light. The light itself isn’t too bright, plus you can angle them in different positions.
https://www.powerbee.co.uk/solar-security-light-56-smd.html

Have one on the front above the garage door, along with a nest cam on the corner of the house. Never picked up an intruder nosing around, but was that the camera or the light? It’s set up so you have to be half way up the drive to trigger it. I guess most people don’t bother to tune the sensitivity!

Next door fitted one opposite our boiler flue, so it illuminates the side of his house when our heating’s on or we run the tap.

A guy down the road has a 1 billion lumen bright white one which effectively illuminates the house opposite him every time a car drives past.

They’re handy for putting the bins out when it’s dark (and lighting the front steps up when coming home late at night)

This – we have directional ones that point up and down our side path with the PIR pointing sideways on. This way the neighbours would struggle to activate them but anyone opening the side gate will (as will someone leaving the house by the side door when doing the bins / taking the dog out etc).

We also have dimmable decorative LED lights lighting the front of the house and path to the front door which are dusk to dawn activated and provide a nice low light throughout the night.

They’re fine if the owner has the sensitivity and range set appropriately.

My neighbour has decided to put 3 lights up that come on when it goes dark and stay on all night.

We live in a small village with very little light pollution and as such we enjoy quite a bit of star gazing. These lights have completely ruined this. What’s more they’ve built a wooden “studio” 2/3rds of the way down their garden (painted black & nicknamed the death star) with a light on the wall facing us. So when we sit on our decking at the back of our garage/garden room, the light shines directly into our eyes.

We can no longer watch nature at the bottom of our garden and can’t see any stars. Totally ruined one of the reasons we bought the house.

Mildred, option one is a reasonable conversation. Option 2 is a catapult.

We put some lights up last year but were very careful to consider angle and spread. Our neighbours drive is parallel to ours so we put the sensor on the side of the house nearest their drive so the sensor arc covers only our drive. We then spent a while up a ladder making sure the spread of light doesn’t point into anyone’s windows. Sensor is not too sensitive and lights times for only 30 secs.

Covering a neighbours house with light is a dick move, I didn’t want to be a dick.