Edit: the duality between “lol get curtains” and helpful things is great. But! I can’t put up curtains on the windows the light floods in - it’s the front door and the sort of side window beside the front door. Since I rent, I’m not going to put holes in the door, nor do I think it would look decent enough not to bother me. But also for those concerned about safety of sidewalks, I don’t have a sidewalk on my side, I’d only be blocking light on the front yard and hopefully into the house. But thanks y’all, this has been helpful:))
Basically I’m looking for maybe a semi unethical tip so I can cover the half of the street lamp that shines the light of freaking Helios’ arsehole in my windows every night.
I don’t want to permanently ruin it because I only rent this house and I don’t wanna get in trouble. But it’s way too bright and so very annoying.
So my thoughts are maybe duct tape, or maybe some sort of latex paint I can later peel off? I’m just not sure either will stand up against the elements.
Insofar as the lamp itself is concerned, it’s not one of those with a bent neck. It’s like a lantern on a 9 foot pole. So it should be easy(?) to cover half the glass, I should think.
Have you looked into curtains?
Witchcraft!
no dumaas u cant look into curtains CURTAINS BLOCK THE VIEW it is teh pont of them
;-)
Do not modify a public street lamp. It is not yours. More importantly, you’ll be creating an unsafe environment.
Put up curtains.
The duality of lemmy:
“I am SHOCKED someone would ILLEGALLY MODIFY something that ISN’T THEIRS!”
Vs
“lol firebomb time”
Legit, if you’d rather put in work to modify a street light and risk the consequences instead of putting up curtains, use old cardboard boxes cut in such a way that it drapes a long side over your house’s direction, but not long enough to impede light on sidewalks.
Less work, less cost, less chance of being arrested.
I do understand not wanting to have to use blackout curtains, as I like looking outside.
Personally I use a 100w led spotlight I made, and point it at the street light for a minute or so if I want it off. Works for a few minutes, at least.
firebomb?
naw. that’s a bit much. a .22 lr and some target practice will do the trick.
(but seriously, maybe just invest in some decent black out curtains.)
Have you considered talking with your council about it? It is their utility after all.
Maybe get some light readings and look into what your town says about acceptable light levels.
Yeah this. See if there’s others in your area also concerned about public lighting and advocate together. Too many cities are putting in new LED lights that are way too bright and it’s accelerating light pollution levels. Being able to see stars in the night sky should be something every one can do to connect our humanity.
Lights you can’t control are awful. We have an insanely bright one on the corner that light pollutes so bad. Even worse now because they are horrible white LED. Warm halogen were 1000x better (youll never convince me otherwise). Same with car headlights. White led gives me a headache even when I’m the driver. I’ll take my 90s warm lights any day.
This is a corner that get like 20 cars traffic a day. A light isnt even needed. Plus its in my yard.
The local government or utility may be able to help. Several lights in my area have shutter shades on them that help control sideways/upwards light and keep the beam focused on the ground. It’s called “light intrusion” when someone else shine slight into your property
Maybe consider curtains before vandalism.
“It’s curtains for the city council, see?”
;-)
How long have you lived there?
I grew up in the sticks where the only light pollution was either the moon or the stars.
I moved to a city for uni when I was 19, had a street light outside my window blasting it’s sodium orange glow into my room.
It took about two weeks before I was used to it and didn’t even realise it was there
Have you heard of blackout curtains?
I used to have a streetlight that beamed into my front room.
I did some research on the type of streetlight, bought a security bit that was the right fit to unscrew the access panel near the base, and ripped out the big fuse that lives there. Put the panel back in place. The city never fixed it. If they did I would have taken that fuse too
When I was a kid we had a way of disabling streetlights with no tools. We learned that if you get one kid on either side of it, and push-pull it at the right frequency, you can get it to oscillate in a feedback pattern until the top of the lamppost was shaking back and forth so hard the globe would shatter.
Any of these cardboard cutouts should work.
Get scissor cut black plastic sheet, something that’s ridgid, and silicone fishtank adhesive.
Cut the plastic to match the shape of the glass sections that face your window. Clean the glass with alcohol, then apply a thin layer of silicone to the plastic piece and press it to the glass. Use a finger to wipe any excess and ooze into a tight seam.
So long as it doesn’t hit sweltering hot, freezing cold, or rainy for the next 24hrs it takes to cure, that plastic isn’t comming off without a putty knife and effort (it will come off fine without harming it, but not on its own)
If you want to increase the chance that no one will do anything about it, do the same to every lamp on your block. Nothing hides vandalism like uniformity.
My neighbor put an aluminum/metal thing beneath the lamp. He lives in a flat at the same level of the lamp so it makes sense. I don’t know how he reached there tho
I used to work for AEP, so I dont know if this will work everywhere, but if a neighbor called because of a outdoor light, they could request a work out to see if theres something that could be done, such as adjusting or shading.
Good luck.
