Porch Light Safety: Should You Leave It On Or Off?

Porch Light Safety: Should You Leave It on or Off?

M
by Micah James — 2 years ago in Security 2 min. read
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This is usually quite an interesting topic that elicits mixed reactions on the issue of home security at night. Most burglars will attempt to raid your home at night, and people wonder whether leaving the porch light on will deter such occurrences.

To try and provide insight into the whole question, here is an article that gives the pros and cons of leaving the porch light on or off.

Advantages of Leaving the Porch Light On

  1. Leaving the light porch on creates a perceived notion of people in the house. This may deter a burglar who would prefer to raid a house when the occupants aren’t at home.
  2. It illuminates the nearby area close to the house, thus helping other people find their way home, especially if you live in a community.
  3. When many porch lights are on, the neighborhood lights up as if it is daytime. This can deter burglars because they become visible over a long distance. And no burglar wants this.
  4. Leaving the porch night on also helps if you expect people at night, for example, friends, family, or even deliveries. The porch light will help your house be easily identifiable and thus ready to welcome friendly guests.
  5. If a burglar attempts to steal from a house, the occupants can see the burglar clearly as they are coming because the porch light illuminates them. This gives the house occupants ample time to prepare the defense of the property or alert the authorities.
  6. A porch light will work well with other Home security systems to boost the security of your home. For example, the light will be good for your surveillance camera that does not have night vision capabilities or even for your guard dog and other security personnel.
Also read: 11 best ways to Improve Personal Development and Self-Growth and its Benefit on our Life

Disadvantages of Leaving the Porch Light On

  1. A huge electricity bill is one obvious disadvantage of leaving the porch night on. You will deter criminals, but it will impact your pocket. This is true, especially for seasons that have long nights.
  2. Leaving the porch light on may not work for you if you live in a sparsely populated area, as your house will be visible for all to see over many miles. This has the opposite effect of attracting burglars because your home is easily identifiable as the only house for many miles.
  3. Generally, people love sleeping while the lights are off. So leaving your porch light to illuminate your neighbor’s house may be a disadvantage for you and may annoy your neighbors.
  4. Leaving the porch light on tends to attract bugs flying around the bulbs in the porch area. When they are a lot, they can become a nuisance.




Final Thoughts

It is a well-known fact that burglars prefer nighttime to strike, so it is clear that they don’t like light. Applying this logic here means that leaving the porch light on has some perceived burglar deterrence capabilities.

In addition, the advantages of leaving the porch night on outweigh the disadvantages of leaving the porch light on.

However, some people try to have a middle ground around this issue by having motion sensor porch lights which light only when an intruder or objects move in range. This sudden and unexpected light may scare away an intruder.

Micah James

Micah is SEO Manager of The Next Tech. When he is in office then love to his role and apart from this he loves to coffee when he gets free. He loves to play soccer and reading comics.

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