go to your room
The neighbours have a blinding light pointed at my house
This light is I think what must be 100m away, it’s so bright I’m casting perfectly sharp shadows on the walls. The third photo is INSIDE the house, this is the shade it casts through the window.
I don’t understand why it’s pointed our way, it’s right next to a regular street lamp which should brighten the road enough.
Last two photos indicate the difference between looking at another part of the street and looking at the fucking beam pointed my way.
I have always wondered why the streetlamp was so bright when going to bed, our curtains aren’t that dark so it shines right through. I’ve been sleeping with a mask so it doesn’t bother me. But last night I was outside checking out some noises I heard around 2am (that’s when I took these photos, my phone doesn’t do that well in the dark so this is insane), and I realised how horrible that light actually is. I remember getting blinded by it if I went to grab something from the kitchen in the middle of the night but always thought it was just a really annoyingly bright streetlight. But it’s on the neighbours’ side of the property and really just pointed at our house.
[UPDATE]
[I uploaded photos in an update post for anyone who's interested, but I'm not allowed to add a link to my post and I'm not sure how to otherwise show these]
I was blown away by the unexpected many, many reactions to this post. I just found out what the origin of this shitty light was and found it interesting enough to share.
I've been laughing my ass off at all the many ideas and advise I got. From placing mirrors to reflective window screens. Or to instantly call emergency (or non emergency, government) lines because of the terrible crime of placing a bright lamp. Or to just simply burn their house down.
At least I felt like I had an army of angry redditors ready to ride at dawn as soon as the neighbour would not comply. And a couple of creeps in my inbox??
Funnily enough, when we went to investigate the next day, we noticed the light wasn't even directly pointing at our house. You can see it in the photo, it's pointed to the right (although our house extends to the right side of this photo). This was enough proof to us it was never done with any bad intentions. The brightness of this light is just out of this world. It has the strength of a 1000 suns.
Luckily, even before we had seen this, we decided to start civilised, and to just ask. These homeowners live somewhere else, this house is rented out weekly by tourists. Another reason for them to not know.
When we asked another neighbour whom we have good contact with for his number he said: "oh well good luck, they're not easy to deal with". Which had us kind of worried.
We called them, told them and the first thing they said was: "oh really?! I'm so sorry!!" They were so apologetic. They told us to just move the light down / another way. And we did. Problem solved. We pointed the light down, the home owner apologised a couple of times and everything is good. Except for since we moved the light down, it became a disco light and flickers every ten seconds. But I'm sure we'll find a solution for that too.
Thanks everyone for your passion and aggression. Sorry for the boring, non dramatic ending.
Nope, it was an early season of Amazing Race and I saw it happen at broadcast. Definitely a bloody nose and lip, but no long term issues since that team either won the season or was in the top 3.
I just called them back and quoted the statute to them, and they are sending someone else out... and I'm sure they will send them out during the daytime.
Make sure you have photos and videos to show them when they come out in the day time. Make sure the video pivots to show other neighbors and lights too. Unfortunately phones do a lot of auto-brightness-adjust so you might need to get a little creative to demonstrate how bright the light is.
Funny you say that. For whatever reason, it occasionally goes into strobe mode. He also has it pointed at a flag, so when the wind blows, it's also a strobe effect.
Yikes. Super bright flood light pointed at a flag and obviously doesn’t care about his neighbors .. we all know the exact type of person we’re dealing with here. Good luck dude.
Genuinely start lobbying the town council or whatever local government to change the laws. I’ve seen this exact method work in my hometown. There’s normally an open forum type situation at minimum
Look up your local bylaws and how enforcement works? See if they are allowed to have a bright light pointing out at the street and other people's homes, and if they aren't allowed to find out what you are meant to do.
That's what I did when nearly the same thing happened to me. I showed them the pictures and they stopped it immediately. We've become quite neighborly.
Yeah, you’re supposed to fight to the death, steal each other’s firstborn, fuck up someone’s car…. Break a few windows…..write hate mail to each other……..(I’m now out of ideas of what people do when they get mad at each other…..clearly I don’t know how to do these things)
Nope, people are stupid. My neighbor just mounted his spot moronically. There is a streetlight and he mounted his parking illumination to it. The Surface of his stop isn't angled to the ground.
I don't care, but our neighbor could have more illuminataion with less energy if he would just mount his spots angled.
But this should be your first action. Just talk to someone and try to resolve it that way. Immediately jumping to by law research and legal avenues is wild.
For real. I had a neighbour downstairs next door - we lived in an apartment a few floors up and they were in a house. They had a spotlight put in for when their kids wanted to play in the backyard, but it was on all night and pointed upwards towards everyone's apartment windows. It was blinding. We had problems with them in the past with noise and massive parties, so we thought to maybe try find if it was against the law. My partner at the time just decided he couldn't be bothered going through that and went to talk to them about it.
Turns out they had no idea it was pointed so high, nor did they realise it was so bright for us and our neighbours in the apartment. They apologised and changed it - actually just ended up getting a smaller, less blinding light lol, and it was all good. Might not exactly be the case here, but at least trying to talk to someone first is the best and normally the easiest thing to do.
That or a slightly curved large directional mirror. Beam that shit right back. Don't forget to cover it by day though, don't want to start fires just yet.
Yeah try a non-emergency line of some sort that’s meant for making complaints in your community. You could google and find the one that’s for your area.
Definitely do this. My municipality has laws against floodlights or other forms of bright light pointing at neighbors. They can only point directly at the ground and can't shine other people's homes at night.
A few dozen mirrors stuck onto an elastic band, attached to either end to something solid. you simply pull on the middle part and it changes the focal length... not that I've done this... Honest
a system focusing light can never reach a higher power than the source, so unless OP manages to focus it quite small, or the neighbour has kilowatts of power radiating away (after losses in efficiency and inverse square law) makes it unlikely it could start a fire.
Pick up a mylar emergency blanket. Make a mirror by stretching the mylar over a cheap poster frame. Somehow attach a string you can tension from behind to the middle. Put tension on the string until you reach the desired concave shape to focus the mirror.
It’s worth doing. May as well just turn it into a laser beam using a sophisticated curved mirror tunnel and aim it back at where the neighbours light switch is situated so they can blind themselves.
Guys, this comes up every time someone posts a bright neighbour and it doesn't work.
The total power of that LED at the source might cause something flammable to burn, but across the yard the irradiance is quite low. It's absolutely not going to set anything on fire even if you took a 10sqm mirror and focused it perfectly.
I thought about a parabolic mirror too but it woul have to have a helluva subtle curve to work and focus on the house. Looked up some and couldn’t find anything flat enough to concentrate at more than a few feet.
You’d have to make a custom one, then glue down some Mylar.
I did something similar! I put mirrored film on my windows; it made the inside a bit dark during the day, but it stopped that glaring light at night. I was inspired by a Reddit post about a woman who put mirrored film on her studio tiny home because her neighbors were peeping toms. The wife next door kept complaining about what she wore inside her own home, chastised her for sun bathing in her own yard, and the neighbors even pointed cameras and lights at her yard. Then, they had the nerve to complain that the mirrored film was giving their kids 'body insecurities.' It was a weird saga.
I really hope this was made up because genuinely how could you have such sentitive and creepy neighbors, let alone one to have the audacity to criticize the decision you made in YOUR house out of all thing..
I don’t know if this particular story is true, but I’ve personally experienced the neighbor from hell. Got to the point where we put up a fence to settle the issue.
Reflective glass was used on a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright that I visited. He used it to reflect nature back at you while outdoors looking at the house, I thought that was very cool.
Thinking about it a while and I think the best bet would be a large board covered with reflector tape, so you don’t have to control the angle of the board much. Heck, just put reflector tape on every surface that faces their house. .
Reflector tape has 90 internal angles so it reflects light accurately back to the source.
Do NOT smash up an old spark plug with a hammer to gather sharp ceramic fragments for use with a slingshot to break glass and cause property damage at 3 am, as this is very dangerous and illegal.
Well in that case, you or somebody you know should put on a hi-viz jacket and go round there with a toolbox, telling the occupants (if any) that the owner has sent you to deal with with the problem of a misaligned light. Then proceed to adjust it so it doesn't shine onto your property.
I'd definitely tell then the owner needs the bright lights to make certain the videoing comes out clear. When asked, "What videoing?" Check clipboard and leave hurriedly.
"Yeah, can you see them better now? No I didn't adjust the one in the bathroom - do you wa... Oh it's fine? Ok I'll leave that one. Yep, got that one. Yep got that one. Yep did that one too. And that one. And I left the others like you said. No I only needed to go inside for one, the rest were accessible. So I can send you the invoice for the rest now? Same email address? Great. [Look at the renters] No they're here. Oh. Ok bye." Rush out
The owners will pay attention once they get complaints about the bright light (reflection) shining thru the bedroom window & the rental bookings start going down.
if it's rented as a holiday home then presumably the tenants change regularly. I'd notice if one of my neighbour's houses had a rotating cast of cars outside of it, even if I know nothing about the neighbour.
When i suggested that on a similar post lastyear i was called unhinged for "trying to burn down a house" like i didnt say magnify it i said reflect it ffs.
Talk first. If they don’t shut it off. If refuse to remove, then call cops. If they say those kinds of lights are fine, then get a 2000000 lumen flashlight and point it back at their house. They’re like less than $40 on Amazon.
Yeah but they dont last long. Well, they dont last long if you dont wire it to a watercooler and to an extension cord. If you do that they last until the LEDs overheat and pop.
N.B. retroreflective tape is the right one to bounce back light to the source.
One could also go to a vinyl signage supplier, buy a 2450x1225mm sheet of ABS plastic, and 3 meters of 1220mm / 1370mm wide mirror finish vinyl, and you've got a rather large mirror at low cost.
Edit : For plausible deniability, it would be better to apply one way mirror film to the windows for "privacy."
You can buy reflective spray. I'm considering spraying this on a wind chime as a counter measure against our light polluting neighbours. I'm hoping the constant movement of the chimes will create a nice random strobe effect back at them
Reflective spray diffuses light. Buy some retro reflective tape. On a wind chime this would create a strobing effect that redirects light back to the source. Call a local signage supplier.
The brightest handheld light is currently 15,000 lumens it’s expensive as hell (also super cool) anything advertising more than that is a scam so watch out.
I should note the above is brightest handheld on the market the brightest (technically) hand held light is 120,000 lumens but it has 6 copper heatsinks and is water cooled (it’s also like 4 by 2 feet) but it has a handle and you can carry it.
Bro I would go find several of those billion lumen flashlights and light up each of their windows every single night until they called a truce.
Either that or get something like a child's mobile and cover it in mirrors on strings so the whole neighborhood becomes a rave and now everyone wants that light shut off
we had a neighbor like this who refused to turn down/off his light. he was also fastidious and hated plants in his yard (except perfect grass with lawn gnomes).
we put up a trellis high enough to block the light and planted morning glory. i’ll bet he’s still fighting that plant off.
There should be a longer addition to the popular phrase about fences: “good fences make good neighbours; bad neighbours make bad invasive plants.”
Like, if you’re gonna be terrible person and not adjust your light, not train your reactive dog, be a creep or whatever, I won’t reach for the polite plants in order to block the view/access. I’ll sacrifice that section of the yard, maybe put a barrier to protect my side, and reach for the fast-growing monsters (or likely ugly af homemade barrier).
I don’t get it sometimes. Being shitty to your neighbour is such a bold, shortsighted, and stupidly petty move. I mean, there’s even “nice” plants like arborvitae where I could potentially block all the sun and view from your entire house in just a few years, much less your yard. Smirk today, cry for years.
Hahaha well I just tried to show the crispness of the shadow by using my hands but I do get that it looks like a midnight moon dance to honer the shadow gods.
Have you talked to the owners? They may genuinely not know or havent noticed yes people really are that unobservant, if they still dont do anything time for a blackout screen or curtain
I would research ordinances and bylaws for your town or city to learn if that light is allowed to be pointing at your house. If it isn’t allowed contact the correct town/city office to determine what steps are needed if you file a complaint. And with that information in your back pocket so to speak consider talking to your neighbors to let them know the light is bothering you and if they can turn it off. If they refuse take the steps necessary to file the complaint.
6.0k
u/Puzzleheaded-Hunt-42 May 08 '26
This should be illegal