Home nightlight placement

**Dextrimental** · October 23rd, 2009, 10:10 AM

Last night I realized how placement of night lights can give a tactical advantage in the home. I was just on the edge of being fully asleep on my living room couch. I could still hear my TV vividly, but was fast approaching that R.E.M state. Upon hearing a loud thud, and the sound of my rottweiler barking ( He never barks unless something is awry ). I woke up in a slight state of panic. Not sure what was going on I grabbed my Saiga 12Gauge and proceeded to the doorway between my living room and dining room. I sat back a little from the doorway, because if somebody was there, and entered the dining room they would have had the advantage. Being that I could not see the door that leads from my dining room to my kitchen. I decided to wait for a few minutes to see if any shadows would fall upon my dining room walls. After about 5 minutes of patiently waiting, I decided to check out the dining room, and kitchen. Fortunately nothing was there, and the culprit of the noise was a rake I had leaning up against one of my pillars outdoors. The wind must have got a good hold of it, and knocked it over onto the side of my home. After this whole ordeal I thought the night lights were of particular use in this kind of scenario. I had not previously set them up in with any kind of home tactic in mind. By chance I just happen to set them up on the right side of the room and the lighting cast the shadows on the far side of the wall. I'm not scared of the boogey man but you can bet I'm not going to take my night lights down any time soon! I drew a layout to help everyone understand this. If something is not clear just ask, and I'll do my best to clarify more.

Brad

**rodder** · October 23rd, 2009, 10:32 AM

Nice going realizing that lighting can definitely give a tactical advantage. I turn on nightlights in a couple different places throughout my home (one immediately outside the bedroom door in the hallway) every night before I go to bed but have none in the bedroom. I figure this will give me an advantage during a break-in or home invasion as I should be able to clearly see anyone outside my bedroom while they will have a very difficult time seeing anyone inside due to the fact that their pupils will be adjusted to the light from the nightlight and will be too dilated to see into a completely darkened room.

**Hawk** · October 23rd, 2009, 11:17 AM

Here's another thought regarding night lights and intruders.

IMHO, unless you are trained in clearing a house, this type of activity can be a very risky business. If you truly think someone is attempting to gain entrance or has gained entrance to you house, gather the troops to a secure defensible area, and call for the police to risk their lives, not yours.

As for night lights. It seems to me that you could be providing an aide to an intruder by lighting the way for him. You know your house, an intruder doesn't. Regardless of his night vision he still needs to navigate through your dark house avoiding furniture and doorways. Night lights can be an aide to him.

A bright flashlight in you hands may be a better choice of tactics. Read up on deploying them, better yet take a class!

With regards to "bumps in the night". If your perimeter is secured properly, it will require the average intruder to break glass or bust doors to gain entrance. Those sounds can be easily distinguishable from typical "house noises". Being vigilant is a good thing, but you have got to live your life without declaring war at any strange noise.

**rodder** · October 23rd, 2009, 12:56 PM

Originally Posted by Hawk

Here's another thought regarding night lights and intruders.

IMHO, unless you are trained in clearing a house, this type of activity can be a very risky business. If you truly think someone is attempting to gain entrance or has gained entrance to you house, gather the troops to a secure defensible area, and call for the police to risk their lives, not yours.

As for night lights. It seems to me that you could be providing an aide to an intruder by lighting the way for him. You know your house, an intruder doesn't. Regardless of his night vision he still needs to navigate through your dark house avoiding furniture and doorways. Night lights can be an aide to him.

A bright flashlight in you hands may be a better choice of tactics. Read up on deploying them, better yet take a class!

With regards to "bumps in the night". If your perimeter is secured properly, it will require the average intruder to break glass or bust doors to gain entrance. Those sounds can be easily distinguishable from typical "house noises". Being vigilant is a good thing, but you have got to live your life without declaring war at any strange noise.

Good advice. I know I would not try to clear my house if I was reasonably sure someone had broken in. Hence the lighting everywhere but the bedroom, where I would be hunkered down with the AR and my wife with her M&P. If the BG actually made it to the bedroom he'd be in for a big surprise.

As for the lighting recommendations, imo there are good arguments either way. I've decided I'd rather light the way for the BG and be able to clearly see my target while keeping my position concealed by darkness than keep all the lights off and hope the BG stubs his toe on the couch or something. BTW, I do also keep a light with a momentary switch on all my home defense weapons.

Another reason for the nightlights is that I think there is probably a greater chance of some type of emergency that would require me to quickly leave the house than there is a chance of a break-in and I'd want to be able to see my way in that type of situation.

**Dextrimental** · October 23rd, 2009, 02:34 PM

Originally Posted by Hawk

With regards to "bumps in the night". If your perimeter is secured properly, it will require the average intruder to break glass or bust doors to gain entrance. Those sounds can be easily distinguishable from typical "house noises". Being vigilant is a good thing, but you have got to live your life without declaring war at any strange noise.

I have a fenced in yard that requires you to open the gate to enter, and have had someone enter my property uninvited before. They scurried away when my neighbor came outside to leave for work at 9pm at night. I do not know what he was doing there, or why he was there. I have often wondered would of happen if I left my 2 dogs outside to do their business not knowing he was trespassing.

My home was made over 100 years ago, so I'm aware of the settling issues it does provide, but I know the sounds it makes, and can distinguish if something is outside banging against my house. I stay alert in my waking hours for the sound of my gate opening or any other out of place sound from outside. If something seems out of place I will investigate it.

Brad

**LittleRedToyota** · October 23rd, 2009, 02:50 PM

i think i like the idea of setting up nighlights to cast shadows in such a way that you can sort of "see around corners". never thought of it before, but i think i like it.

i actually come from the school of don't leave any lights on so the intruder can't see well where he is going, but in some cases at least, i think the advantages of seeing his shadow might outweigh that.

(not that they replace a good weapon mounted or handheld tactical flashlight.)

and while i agree that, if you know or are pretty sure someone has broken in, getting to the safe room and calling the police and waiting is the way to go, sometimes you do hear a noise that could be an intruder but likely isn't. in that case, i do go see what is up rather than calling the police.

couple other random thoughts:

windows can be broken very quietly (nearly silently with two common tools) and picking locks makes no noise and is actually quite easy to learn to do just on the internet. deactivating alarms can be harder, though. conclusion: an alarm system that makes a lot of noise when tripped (and doesn't go down when power to the house is cut) might be a good idea.

(on the other hand, many crack addict type burglars aren't going to go to the trouble of being quiet anyway.)

dogs are a great idea...but not everyone has the time/space/etc. to properly own a dog. conclusion: imho, having a dog in your house is the way to go...but i don't have one because i could not devote the time and attention required to properly care for it.