apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I keep compact flourescents on in the garage and my porch at all times. My neighbor is a cop and his best intrudeder deterrrent advice is: keep a light on. Intruders are opportunists. They will go to the darkest, most easily accessible location. If your doors are locked and your lights are on, they'll move on to an easier location.

We put some lamps on timers so they turn on a little before we arrive from work. This circumvents (at least some of) the wasteful energy concerns, while also providing that welcoming light home.

i normally leave one light on...but mostly just for my cat.

I have a motion detector light. My neighborhood is well lit tho

I don't leave any lights on in my apartment, but there are lights on in the hallway in my apartment building, so there's plenty of ambient light.

You might want to put your light on a timer, if you want to save energy.

We keep the porch light and one light in the front room (both CFLs) on when we're out of the house, mostly as a deterrent for burglars. Having the porch light on also makes it easier to get my keys out and into the door when I come home in the dark.

we have a lamp on a timer. it provides us the light we need to see, but also enough to serve as a deterrent.

I leave a light on - but it's a small CFL bulb so I don't feel badly about leaving it on all the time.

The front porch light and living room lamp are on timers, the driveway light is on a motion sensor.

I started doing this years ago when I lived alone in a sketchy neighborhood. It's not just good for warm fuzzies, it's also a way to target harden your home against casual thieves.

what kind of flower is that?

Yup, timers!

Lori, It's a Dahlia.

I think the flower is a Zinnia.

I never leave the lights on, because I'd forget about it and on coming home I'd freak out thinking someone is in my apartment!

Sorry LoriSF my mistake its not a zinnia, I checked just a variety of chrysanthemum.

Thanks. Now where to get Zinnias!

Off. It's not that hard to walk in the door and turn on a light.

we have a strand of LED string lights always on in the house so it's not in total darkness. we also have another lamp on with a CFL bulb and timer. My neighbors leave their garage lights on as well so it's pretty well lit when I get home.

Cheryl:

LOL! I agree, especially if it's right inside the front door. I used to have a boyfriend who left the TV on all day, so he didn't have to come home to a silent house ... now, that's pathetic!

light on for the hounds until i can get home before dark. the porch light is on a timer / dimmer. it goes on at a certain time and stays in low level light mode, when the motion sensor triggers it lights up brighter.

I hate coming home to lights on. It makes me feel like someone rushed out unexpectedly - very unsettling.

Excellent idea!

Light off, but the on switch is just inside the door. And if I'm going to be away overnight, I leave a low-watt bathroom light on for my cat, because he's a bit of a fraidy-cat.

As a survivor of a vicious assault 21 years ago, it makes a huge difference to me if the house is light or dark. Coming home alone at night is bad enough, but if the lights are off, I can barely get out of my car. I sometimes sleep in my car rather than enter a dark house at night. I'll wait till my so comes home so we can enter together sometimes. Neurotic, I know, but some things just can never be fixed completely.

porch light is a CFL - i want to get an adapter that will turn it on when the sun sets and off when the sun rises.

i have a timer on a lamp in the front room too.

no lights on, then again we have a car garage we pull into that gives us enough time to get our keys out open door and turn on light switch beside door before garage light goes out.

A waste of electricity indeed. And cause of light pollution: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_pollution

Check some links about crime and lights: http://www.britastro.org/dark-skies/crime.html

We leave a couple lights on for us and our dog if we know we'll be getting home after dark.

on

I, like a lot of folks on here have a timer on a light with a cfl bulb. I typically get home from work around 9pm and I live out in the 'burbs (at least for another two weeks!) where they haven't heard of this thing called "street lights".

I keep my timer to go off around sunset.

TIMER!!!

I also use the timer light going off as a reminder to turn off the tv and go to bed : )

When in my home, I always had the front and back porch lites on timers and 2 inside lites on timers. They were with cfl bulbs but the main thing is SAFETY. I'm worth more than a couple $s a month for the electricity.

luckily we have porch lights with motion sensors and a light switch right inside the front door but if we didn't, i would definitely be leaving a small light on for myself. not only because of my concerns over safety but also because of my general clumsiness. walking around in the dark in a house, even my own house, is a big no-no for me! ;)

I don't usually because I want to save energy, but if it's late at night and I'm just running to the store or a friend's house I will. More for security reasons than any other- any intruders will still think someone is home. Plus, I do feel safer walking into a house with a light. I'm a young woman living alone in a city, so feeling safe can be a struggle :)

~Amanda
http://onehappypanda.blogspot.com

Like bepsf, I keep a small CFL light on (11w), sometimes even two, and don't feel too terrible about it. Like tabithacat, though, it's more about my own clumsiness than safety, although that is a consideration too.

I leave a small bedside lamp on, and sometimes a small hallway lamp, too.

One on for the dog while I'm gone and becasue I don't like to fumble around once I get home. My yard is dark except for neighborhood lights, which is minimal. I do use a CFL. Sometimes I leave the radio on softly for the dog too. It might be totally pointless to the dog but it makes me feel she's happier, so, maybe just for my own peace of mind!

maybe i've seen one too many horror movies, but i'm not the one who's gonna die screaming because i went home to a dark house, or down dark stairs, or a dark hallway.... lights on.

On. Especially if you have a pet. Invest in a good timer and an energy saving light, and the guilt will subside somewhat. As a single women living in a first floor apartment, coming home to a dark house is a no-no.

light on because sometimes the cat is loose and we can peek in before walking in to make sure he's not gonna sneak out the door.

when my dad is home tho and my mum and I are out he always has every light off. I feel so bad for my dogs when i get home and see them in total darkness. :(

We keep a light on for ourselves as well. Give me a little credit because I do use the energy saving bulbs.

The hallway up to our apartment has a light that stays on all the time - I still am trying to persuade the office to put it on a timer or sensor.

I'm a woman and I live alone (Cat, I love you, but you don't count for the purposes of this post 'til you've learned to flick a light on...). I must admit, the thought of leaving a light on all day, for the sole purpose of having it on for the few seconds between when I arrive home and when I get inside, makes me feel queasy -- so many hours of wasted electricity! -- BUT, I also understand the fear of coming home, via a dark/menacing street, to a dark/empty house.
I don't leave a light on, but that's largely because there are other sources of security where I am. I guess it depends where you live -- where I am, it's a busy inner-city neighborhood, and quite a safe one. There are street lights and neighbours very close-by and only very rarely, VERY late at night, does it feel like no one else is around to help me if I happened to scream. My parents live further out -- "officially", it's a richer, safer, more "respectable" suburb, but it's so, so dark and isolated at night, I'd dread strolling home after dark, whereas I feel comfortable on the streets at all hours in my more urban neighborhood. So I can absolutely understand leaving a light/lights on in some situations.
But still, where I am, leaving a light on during daylight hours seems environmentally reckless to me. So -- I echo previous votes for a timer and/or motion sensor wherever possible.

In my house we always leave a light on. Safety issues. The one in the kitchen or on the living room. Even when the entrance haves a sensor light that turns on when something moves near by. Works miracles :D

i always leave a lamp on. i hate coming home to a dark apartment.

In this economy, hasn't people noticed that neighborhoods people thought were perfectly safe are now becoming huge targets? Rich neighborhoods are now probably worse than other areas.

I totally do this. I use a timer so I don't have to worry about wasted electricity.

sensor lights from my car to the door are the best idea my boyfriend ever had. i hate walking the 150 metres from our garage to the front door in the pitch dark. i worry about stepping on snakes!!

Hmm, is it weird that I am a young woman who's lived alone in 3 major cities now and I don't leave the lights on? I do worry about crime, but for some reason leaving a light on IN the apartment has never made me feel better, instead it gives me that creepy someones's-here feeling. Are there statistics on if it really makes it any safer? My parents always set lights on timers when they go on vacation, which seemed kind of silly to me since if anyone is watching that closely they would know no one is home anyway. I used to leave our porch light on if I was going out at night occasionally (usually if I expected to come home carrying things and didn't want to fumble for my keys in the dark) but I tend to feel like it highlights the fact that no one is home. Sometimes standing at a brightly-lit door at night at my old apartment that could make me feel MORE vulnerable, like I was standing in a spotlight on the deserted street. Now we live in a building with a gated entry and halls that are lit 24-7, so it's a non-issue. As for our cats, I don't think they mind the dark much... they always seem to have been sleeping anyway when we get home from work!