Lights on?

[brirene]

A serious question, with no judgements, to people who leave their porch or other outside lights on all night while camping: why do you? This past weekend, and many other times I've noticed folks who do this. Is it safety? Keep critters away? Just forget? Something else?

[Atlee]

Mine stay on until the last of us are in for the night, then it's cut off. At football game weekends, and other weekends when we're with our RVing buddies, I have the honor of cutting it off, usually in the wee hours of the morning. 🙂

[IDoMyOwnStunts]

tpi wrote:

mayble wrote:
What exactly is a "scare light"?
At first I assumed it was a motion activated security light, but I see references to leaving them on, day and night so obviously that ain't it.

I think it is one of the most ridiculous names in RVing. It is a larger diameter flush mounted light facing outward, sometimes equipped with a larger than the typical 1141 light bulb. The name implies it will scare off intruders when switched on. Frankly the whole thing is too much drama, both from a hype sense, and from actual useful light output. If employed as outdoor lighting, they can be annoying as much of the light is directed away from the task at hand, often into neighboring campsites.

Huh. I always thought they were called scare lights because they are the lights you flip on when your spouse wakes you in the middle of the night and goes, "What was that? I'm scared!" :W

[tpi]

Afraid of the dark??????

In reality I think so, or at least discomfort with the dark. So many cities and suburbs are "well lit" at night thanks to cheap energy efficient lighting. When I grew up in the 1950s even those areas were dimmer thanks to almost universal use of incandescent lights with lower lumen outputs and higher costs. From what I read, even big cities had dark skies before electricity, milky way clearly visible etc. I wish we didn't have so much needless night lighting. Unfortunately I think it is a lost cause, far more people feel uncomfortable in the dark than ones like myself who love it. One thing good about RVs is they can be taken to known dark sky areas and parked with others who like that too.

[Opie431]

We would take our cat for a walk every night that the weather was decent at 11PM.

We were always surprised at how many people had several of their outside lights on while it looked like no one was up inside. Any of ours that were on would go out when we went to bed. And usually no one was sitting around any campfires at that time of night.

Afraid of the dark??????

[brirene]

mayble wrote:
What exactly is a "scare light"?

A few weeks ago I used mine to help some kids play kickball a few minutes longer after dark. One of the few times I've ever used it. BTW, it did "scare" then when the light came on (I think "freaky" was the term they used)! :E

[dodge_guy]

They are really called work lights! However I don't work when I'm camping so I just don't use it!

[mayble]

tpi wrote:


I think it is one of the most ridiculous names in RVing. It is a larger diameter flush mounted light facing outward, sometimes equipped with a larger than typical 1141 light bulb. The name implies it will scare off intruders when switched on. Frankly the whole thing is too much drama, both from a hype sense, and from actual useful light output.

So it's just a big, bright light with an on/off switch.

Thanks

[tpi]

mayble wrote:
What exactly is a "scare light"?
At first I assumed it was a motion activated security light, but I see references to leaving them on, day and night so obviously that ain't it.

I think it is one of the most ridiculous names in RVing. It is a larger diameter flush mounted light facing outward, sometimes equipped with a larger than the typical 1141 light bulb. The name implies it will scare off intruders when switched on. Frankly the whole thing is too much drama, both from a hype sense, and from actual useful light output. If employed as outdoor lighting, they can be annoying as much of the light is directed away from the task at hand, often into neighboring campsites.

[Boon_Docker]

It is a bright light that some people leave on while camping because they are scared of the dark and should have stayed home where it is was nice and bright and less scary :B

[mayble]

What exactly is a "scare light"?
At first I assumed it was a motion activated security light, but I see references to leaving them on, day and night so obviously that ain't it.

[brirene]

Camped this weekend I saw someone who literally had 2 or 3 floodlights pointed up into the woods behind his trailer. Other than the light pollution, they were situated so that they weren't shining into anyone else's site. I can only assume it was to keep the raccoons, multiple and notoriously active at this park, away from his site. So I was amused as I walked past and there, silhouetted against the lights, a huge, fat raccoon scurried around under his trailer and around his campsite, looking for scraps.

[djsamuel]

2012Coleman wrote:
I turn mine off because I don't want a 11 page thread on RV.net of people squawking about me leaving it on - being too afraid to just tell me it bothers them.

Ha! 🙂 Certainly didn't mean to extend an 11 page thread. We have some good shades in our camper and the lights don't bother me at all. In fact, we're camping close to home and I still have to go to work early in the morning and the extra light was a help. I only posted the picture as a curiosity since setting up a halogen shop light separate from the camper seemed somewhat extreme. I guess some people feel very insecure in their camper and the lighting provides some level of security for them.

[IDoMyOwnStunts]

Mine are far too bright to leave on. The loading lights could be used for runways. I do have dim lights on the jack I sometimes leave on if I know I'm coming back to the camp site in the dark just so I can see a path to the door. But those lights are pointed straight down around the tongue and I couldn't imagine them disturbing anybody.

We may have the door light on if we're outside with the fire dying but still need to see to put it completely out or clean up. We turn off everything when we go to bed.

[camperforlife]

I asked that very question to a neighboring camper once when his scare light lit our trailer up at night. He stated that they had new bikes and didn't want them stolen. I asked how much they set him back and he said $250 each. I pointed to our two bikes and let him know that they were $1800 each. I pointed out that ours were unlocked, his was locked and said "I mean no disrespect but which two bikes do you think someone would steal". His light was off the remainder of his stay.