If the house is going to be empty during the evening we will leave a light on just to give the impression that someone is home; otherwise no.

We have US cousins who while visiting during their 'student years' would leave ALL the lights on. The Off switch seemed to have no meaning for them. My Mother's cry up and down the stairs was 'Turn the *** lights off.' Maybe it was because they were not the bill-payers or possibly the cost of electricity was/is much cheaper in the US?

Quite a different topic but they used to smoke in their bedrooms . . . a big NO NO for us even in the days before the understanding that smoking is bad for you . . . and for everyone else forced to breathe in the fumes.

Same here vee. Leaving a light on in an empty room was a crime. I still can't do it.

No. I can't even get DH to let me leave the outside lights on when I know we are returning in the dark. He does believe lights on is the universal signal no one is home.

The exterior lights are on a timer so they're on at dusk for about 4 hours. They also have a motion sensor so if someone comes home really late they turn on.

Inside we have 2 lamps that function like night lights.

This lamp is in the foyer and it is always on and you can see a soft glow from the front porch through the sidelights on the front door. DH gave it to me and I can see it from my favorite chair the family room

No. I can easily reach the entry light which is maybe 3 steps away when I walk inside. I never leave outdoor lights on. I like darkness outdoors. I wish my area had a dark sky law. Motion security lights in the neighborhood are a constant annoyance to me. But as long as they aren't lighting up my property I guess I have to live with the foolishness. *sigh*

I have inexpensive solar lights in the front garden. They illuminate the path from the gate to the front door, don't disturb the neighbours, and go on when it gets dark regardless of whether anyone is home. Most of the folks around me have them as well.

I make sure the light above our kitchen sink is on and the courtyard (front door) light is on when we are away. We also have a motion light that comes on, on one side of our house.

I too leave a light on ’for the dogs’. I wonder if they notice?

If I'm coming home after dark, I leave a porch light on. The motion light in the driveway is too far away to help out on the porch when I need to insert a key in the lock.

We also leave a can light on over the kitchen sink 24/7. I have a florescent light over my workbench in the basement that also stays on.

I sometimes leave a light on when I’m working in a room, closet, utility room for example but need to go in and out for a minute or two. DH drives me crazy because he will turn it off and then there I am at the door going right back in, sometimes with my hands/arms full. We usually do not leave any lights on when going out.

I’ve recently read that we should not leave outdoor lights on all night as it disrupts insect and other animal behavior in a negative way (beneficial insects for example). DH thinks we need to leave these solar lanterns on outside all the time. I’m trying to get him out of that mindset. We do have outside lights on a timer and really minimize the time they are on, especially in summer. Our garage light comes on when opened and we have plenty of time to get into the house in the dark.

I don't think much about it. I have a light above my kitchen sink that is always on and some night lights in the hallways.

I don't specifically turn on lights because I won't be at home, but my home is not often vacant. If I go away, it is for a couple of hours, no set schedule. If I go on vacation I have someone stay at my house with my dogs, so it is still occupied.

I have a street light outside of my home that illuminates the front and garage side of my home.. No real need for front lighting - I don't turn the front lights on unless it is trick or treat or I have a specific reason to be able to see better (like spraying the hornet nest that was near my front door.)

I don't think lighting is a key factor for deterring a burglar. The movies make us think that burglaries are often elaborately planned by professional burglars. Most burglaries are young males looking for an easy target where they can get in and out quickly without being noticed.

I found the Amazon delivery guy in my kitchen one day a few years ago. I had the garage door open and the door to my house unlocked while I was working in my yard. My dog ran into the house through the open back door, so I thought maybe my sister stopped by, so I followed my dog and heard someone saying "Hello" "Hello". . . I grabbed my bear spray that was in a drawer between me and the kitchen and answered "Hello". He said something about my dog and asked what kind she was and I asked him what he is doing in my house. He said he was just bringing my package in to me, handed me a small package and left. My guess is that if I my dog had not run into the house to greet him he would have made it into the next room, seen my purse, stolen either my purse or wallet and been out the door before anyone noticed.

One of my co-workers had a similar incident, left her garage door open while working outside with her son, but her teenage daughter was upstairs taking a shower. She heard her daughter scream and some guy ran past her going out of her house. The daughter wasn't hurt, but when she got out of the shower and walked to her bedroom she saw a strange man in her mother's bedroom and screamed.

My neighbors home was burglarized when they went to a funeral - turned out to be a teenage relative that knew they were going to be at the funeral. My sister's home was burglarized when they went on vacation, but the only things that were stolen were her kid's belongings, video games, hats, music CDs, pocket knives . . . The burglars were caught because they bragged about it at school and someone told my nephews who stole their stuff. They knew the family was going on vacation because they heard my nephews talking about it. Another friend had all the belongings in her parents home loaded into a U Haul and taken away while the family was at the funeral home planning her mother's funeral. It was the youngest brother who didn't show up at the funeral home and is a drug addict.

I don't know anyone who has had their home burglarized by some highly sophisticated burglar. Always a crime of convenience.

Yep, we leave on 2 inside lights when we're away at night or overnight. LED lights don't get hot and only use ~12% wattage of incandescent bulbs. Also have several motion detector lights around the exterior with LEDs.

We’ve had a number of burglaries in our neighborhood. I try to make the house look occupied if i go out. Sometimes I leave the tv on. I have motion lights outside.

I do think outside lights left on during the day are a sign that the occupants are away —- or forgot to turn them off when they got up!

No.

Reading this got me thinking about burglaries. We have few here, but it seems to me when I do hear of them it’s ”in broad daylight!” On a hunch I googled, and sure enough it’s estimated that the vast majority occur during the day when houses are more likely to be empty.

I’m bad at turning off lights. I try to pay attention and turn them off when I notice, but my daughter in particular chastises me for how often I leave them on.

As mentioned above, fortunately today’s LED’s are very efficient, so we can leave several lights on with less waste than a single table lamp of yesteryear.

Porch light is on timer. Indoor lights we’ve stopped leaving on when going out of town.

I turn mine on and off as we leave the room. When we traveled, I had timers set for each room for when we turned the lights on.

Elmer - I wouldn't leave any lights on either if I had to pay the astronomical electric rates that you Californians do.

I always leave the pendant lights on over the island . The cats don't like dark but my interior is never completely dark. I have electric candles burning at every window so even at night, you can navigate safely through the house without turning on lights. We never leave our outdoor lights on(except the sensor one), but if we're gone for many hours and it will be dark when we get home, we turn the two lights on that are old lanterns on poles in our yard We never use the front door, which has an overhead light, and all the other doors do not have that.

I have a light on a timer to turn on 3 times a day for an hour, so sometimes it's on when I get home, and sometimes it isn't. I have a dusk-to-dawn light on my driveway that is also controlled by a switch, so I turn that on when I'm expecting to be home after dark.

Yes, always the kitchen light. Also, our security cameras have lights that come on when they sense motion.

When we go away for a few days, I leave an additional light on at the other end of the house.

Maire-Cate, Love your Kinzig lamp. I have been planning to buy one for years, but never do. Can't deice which one, which size, etc. etc.

Lone jack, as food mentioned, I think LED light efficiency is affordable for almost everyone and encourages lighting use.

We do have lights that come on. Someone once told me having a light on in a bathroom can indicate someone’s likely home.

In winter we often dont get enough light to fuel the solar motion detector light where we park the car. I always have a flashlight with me when I go anywhere because I have very poor night vision. In summer it is not going to be dark enough to need an outside light until after ten oclock. We have an led over the kitchen sink on most of the time except over night.

In the house my DH will turn off lights in rooms we are using and often sit in the dark while he watches tv but almost never will turn off a light in the entry or a bathroom. I was brought up to turn lights off. He will turn off the overhead kitchen light when I am going in and out of the room but not turn off the entry where no one is going at all. Drives me nuts.

I forgot to mention the security cameras. Some have lights and some dont. They detect motion and turn on. Lots of deer and the occasional bear or cat. In winter it could be a herd of elk.

Absolutely don't want to come home to a dark house. And these days that's 5 days out of 7. Still working two jobs. At least want to see my attackers, when I walk in the door. I mean, the cat. Heh

I have dusk to dawn outside lights and if I think about it, if I will return home after dark, I will sometimes leave the downstairs bathroom light on. No one can see in the window and it faces the approach to the house, but is obviously a bathroom window. I think it could appear someone is home and in the bathroom, even if the rest of the house is dark.

Maire_cate, I love that lamp too. It's gorgeous!!

If I am out, I always have a tv on and lights for my dog if it will be getting dark. For myself, I have a streetlight right outside the front of my house so I have plenty of light all night long to be able to move about the house. Also my neighbors leave their front porch light on all night which I don't like but thankfully it illuminates my living room and not my bedroom.

I have a motion light over my garage and that was the first thing I disabled because it came on constantly due to wildlife and it was constantly waking me up.

As for burglary, I have not heard of any in my neighborhood (or even in my little town) in the 26 years I have lived here. I know almost all my neighbors so would know if something was amiss. The exception is for the younger generation that feel like they don't need to lock their cars. We go through spurts where cars get broken into. And it is 99% cars that are not locked.

We are old. We don't go out after dark!

According to my husband, a retired nuclear engineer, a single light bulb costs 1/2 a penny to run for 24 hours. Of course, that's in our low-cost-of-living-area.

Anyway, we've never worried over the cost of operating light bulbs. A couple lights are "always on" at our house: the pantry /laundry, which otherwise would be completely dark -- and since it's at the end of the kitchen, it gives us "just enough" light to go into the kitchen for a drink. And the hall bathroom, which provides a big of light in the middle of the house, allowing anyone getting up in the night to avoid a stubbed toe.

Yes, we especially keep our porch light on at night. Someone came into our driveway /broke our daughter's back windshield. We could've run light bulbs a long time for the cost of replacing that windshield.

I have LED dusk-to-dawn lights outside, but I don't leave any lights on inside.

I found this an interesting read. When to Turn Off Your Lights | Department of Energy https://share.google/jIDW0tJBfBF1MKS17

Jennifer! Did you turn the Amazon guy in that went inside your house??

I can tell a little story about my Kinzig lamps. We'd been getting the Artful Home catalog for years but we never bought anything other than a pair of earrings for DD. About 10 years ago we downsized when we moved into an over 55 neighborhood a few miles from our family home. Our house had been very traditional and our new home had fewer rooms and was brighter with large windows and less wall space. So we sold or gave away some of our furniture and bought a few pieces for the new place. Since it was much smaller we didn't need much but we decided to splurge on the lamps. We bought 3 Kinzig lamps. I wasn't sure about the purchase but once they arrived I was thrilled we bought them - they're art.

The Kinzig lamps are 20% off at Artful Homes at the moment.

@OllieJane - I immediately called Amazon, who told me that they contract the delivery out and there was no way for them to track who came into my home. Very unhelpful, uninterested. I was not happy with their response at all.

Jennifer-that's not good. Glad you came in when you did.

We have a pretty nice Amazon delivery guy who was here yesterday - well he's here everyday but in particular was in front of my house. He brings dog biscuits and has come to know not only the dogs but the people in our neighborhood as well.

My neighbor across the street happened to be outside when he came so they got to chatting. Amazon guy told my neighbor that they don't work for Amazon, they are contracted out as Jennifer found out. They have no union. The routes are owned by different people who then hire the delivery people. They give them hundreds of packages to deliver each day. He is always breaking into a trot on his way back to the truck. I don't know how their pay compares to the UPS drivers who do have a union. I was just surprised to hear that he did not work for Amazon directly.

I did not know that Amazon delivery people aren’t employed by Amazon. I see lots of deliveries made by people in what look like personal vehicles but don’t know what service they’re from. But, the Amazon delivery is made by a person driving their big gray electric vans with Amazon logo on them. A couple years ago when those vans first showed up a driver gave my husband a peek inside his & pointed out many of the cool features of the new vans. I don’t know how this came up but he told my husband he was paid ”by the package”.

Yes, and our delivery guy said that Amazon loads the trucks. Not the driver. So he has to go through and see what's what.

Before we went away on a recent trip, I bought a smart LED bulb for one of the living room lamps. The bulb is controlled through a phone app. On/off hours can be set, like a timer, but with no worries about power outages causing issues.

Watch the South Park episode ”Insecurity.”

I don’t leave a light on when I go out.

Except,

I have two little trees with led Christmas lights that get turned on about Nov. and don’t get shut off until May. Live plants replace them the rest of the year. No ligts on them.

eta They can only be seen if you are in my yard.

TIP: these little bulb lightsets last much longer if you leave them on (or off <g>), rather than regularly turn them off during daylight as a lot of people do.

OT re: Amazon. My nephew is an Amazon delivery driver in Austin TX area, through one of the contractors. He test-drove an electric van a few months ago but wasn't assigned to have one at the time. He said it was fun to drive but he didn't particularly want to have one on a regular basis. Word is that he did recently have one for a day. He had a bunch of deliveries on UT campus several weeks ago, said it was difficult to find parking due to the many spaces reserved for faculty and students. I've not heard, nor have I directly asked him, about any odd situations or difficulties.

Those Amazon electric vans are great from my perspective. They took a bit of getting used to though as they’re sooo quiet. They seem to glide through the streets of our neighborhood. They’re extended too so parking would be tough.

I’ve just come in from a walk with my husband. We were chatting about a whole bunch of stuff and I happened to mention that the city near us has a large amount of tent caterpillars this year. I told my husband how I haven’t seen those black masses of caterpillars in over twenty years and how weird that is because we have acres of deciduous trees. He said perhaps it was because of moths being attracted to light. And we don’t have lights on at night. And we don’t have neighbours with lights on at night. And we don’t have street lights. He said that moths are attracted to lights, lay their eggs there, and that’s the area where they hatch. That was his theory 🤷‍♀️

LOL, sounds good to me. I wasn’t going to argue. We continued on with some other topic,

I thought of this thread.💡🤠

eta I’m not a gardener.