On 25/5/04 15:43, in article , "Jane
Ransom" wrote:

In article , Steve Black
writes
Hombase are doing "Buy one get one free!" solar lights (£9.99 for two).

Are they any good and is solar lighting powerful enough to see by?

Why, why do people want to light the garden permanently at night?
Do they sit there every night, all night, watching it?

Amen to that, Jane! This country is one of the worst for light pollution.
;-(
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon

On Tue, 25 May 2004 16:28:27 +0100, Sacha
wrote:

On 25/5/04 15:43, in article , "Jane
Ransom" wrote:

In article , Steve Black
writes
Hombase are doing "Buy one get one free!" solar lights (£9.99 for two).

Are they any good and is solar lighting powerful enough to see by?

Why, why do people want to light the garden permanently at night?
Do they sit there every night, all night, watching it?

Amen to that, Jane! This country is one of the worst for light pollution.
;-(

Have you seen a solar light Sacha? Glow worms emit about a thousand
times more light than the two we bought.

"Jane Ransom" wrote in message
...
In article , Steve Black
writes
Hombase are doing "Buy one get one free!" solar lights (£9.99 for two).

Are they any good and is solar lighting powerful enough to see by?

Why, why do people want to light the garden permanently at night?
Do they sit there every night, all night, watching it?
--
Jane Ransom in Lancaster.

They only work for a few hours after dusk!
Lights in the garden look nice and they deter Burglars.

On Tue, 25 May 2004 23:54:48 +0100, Steve Black wrote:

Lights in the garden look nice ...

Matter of opinion, I guess if you live somewhere where the night sky
is already orange from street lights you don't care about light
pollution. Up here I consider uncontrolled external lighting that is
on for no good reason, ie no one out there working or moving about,
really rather anti-social.

and they deter Burglars.

I doubt a burglar would worry about a tiddly solar glimmer, if he was
he'd just pull it up and stick it in the wheelie bin, under a bush or
something.

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail

On 25/5/04 23:54, in article
, "Steve Black"
wrote:


"Jane Ransom" wrote in message
...
In article , Steve Black
writes
Hombase are doing "Buy one get one free!" solar lights (£9.99 for two).

Are they any good and is solar lighting powerful enough to see by?

Why, why do people want to light the garden permanently at night?
Do they sit there every night, all night, watching it?
--
Jane Ransom in Lancaster.

They only work for a few hours after dusk!
Lights in the garden look nice and they deter Burglars.


I don't think that lights that work for a few hours after dusk will deter
burglars. Those horrendously bright but effective halogen jobs are best for
that.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds after garden to email me)

On Tue, 25 May 2004 23:54:48 +0100, "Steve Black"
wrote:


"Jane Ransom" wrote in message
...
In article , Steve Black
writes
Hombase are doing "Buy one get one free!" solar lights (£9.99 for two).

Are they any good and is solar lighting powerful enough to see by?

Why, why do people want to light the garden permanently at night?
Do they sit there every night, all night, watching it?
--
Jane Ransom in Lancaster.

They only work for a few hours after dusk!
Lights in the garden look nice and they deter Burglars.

If solar lights were any good burglars would steal them. They don't

On Wed, 26 May 2004 09:01:36 +0100, Sacha wrote:

Those horrendously bright but effective halogen jobs are best for
that.

Not really, all they do is make the area outside of their direct
illumination into really deep black shadow that a whole army of
burglars could hide in.

Yes, an illuminated area is not going to be attractive to a scroat
while he jemmies the window but you don't need half a kilo watt of
tungsten halogen for that. An ordinary light bulb in a (shielded)
bulkhead fitting will provide enough light to show up the scroat and
not make the shadows so dark that he can hide in them if someone
passes by.

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail

In article , Steve
Black writes

Lights in the garden look nice and they deter Burglars.

You mean, they light the way for burglars to see by.

The best deterrent is a pitch black garden full of prickly bushes ie
they (the burglars) give themselves away by the torch beam they have to
use and by the screams of agony as they progress towards an unlit
window/door!!
--
Jane Ransom in Lancaster.
I won't respond to private emails that are on topic for urg
but if you need to email me for any other reason, put ransoms
at jandg dot demon dot co dot uk where you see

"Jane Ransom" wrote in message
...
In article , Steve
Black writes

Lights in the garden look nice and they deter Burglars.

You mean, they light the way for burglars to see by.

The best deterrent is a pitch black garden full of prickly bushes ie
they (the burglars) give themselves away by the torch beam they have to
use and by the screams of agony as they progress towards an unlit
window/door!!

I find the best deterrent is two huge German Shepherd dogs. They don't even
have to meet the burglar to be sucessful - the mere sight of two huge beasts
snarling at the windows, baying for the blood of the unwelcome tends to
deter tea leaves, even if they *are* confident they could sue us (don't get
me started on such laws) for getting bitten after breaking in - that ain't
much compensation to you if you've got no face and no genitalia ! Cold
callers have stopped coming round too, which isn't half bad. ;-)

However, if you can't do big dogs, prickly bushes are good, I agree.


Rachael

"Dave Liquorice" wrote in message
ll.com...
On Tue, 25 May 2004 23:54:48 +0100, Steve Black wrote:

Lights in the garden look nice ...

Matter of opinion, I guess if you live somewhere where the night sky
is already orange from street lights you don't care about light
pollution. Up here I consider uncontrolled external lighting that is
on for no good reason, ie no one out there working or moving about,
really rather anti-social.

and they deter Burglars.

I doubt a burglar would worry about a tiddly solar glimmer, if he was
he'd just pull it up and stick it in the wheelie bin, under a bush or
something.

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail

Sorry I was unclear!
Lights in general (not just solar) deter burglars.
It works here in Bristol with a good Neighbourhood Watch scheme in tow.

The message
from Sacha contains these words:

On 25/5/04 23:54, in article
, "Steve Black"
wrote:

Lights in the garden look nice and they deter Burglars.

Unfortunately they don't. The vast majority of domestic breakins and
thefts happen during the daytime, when lights are off.

External lights kept on, just give thieves a good opportunity to look
the place over from the cover of darkness, without attracting attention.

Janet.

On Wed, 26 May 2004 17:41:00 +0100, Kay Easton wrote:

But then a tiddly solar glimmer isn't going to be very antisocial,
and, since many of them have their solar panel on top, very little
of the light can escape upwards.

That is why I said "uncontrolled" meaning lighting that only lights
the desired area and not the sky.

And what effect does one set of garden lights have compared with the
barrage of illuminated signs at the garage down the road?

The garage down the road doesn't have a barrage of illuminated signs.
Which is where "I guess if you live somewhere where the night sky
is already orange from street lights you don't care about light
pollution." comes in.

The nearest street lights to us are 1.5 miles away, probably no more
than 10. The next lot are 2.5 miles away in the town. After that no
street lights for 5 miles plus and they are only villages with just a
dozen or so. On a good clear night in winter (the sun doesn't get low
enough in the summer) the night sky here is stunning, the Milky Way is
just there arching across from almost horizon to horizon, there are so
many visible stars I have trouble picking out the constellations. If
there is an active aurora that can be good as well. The only sky glow
we have is a little from Carlisle (20 miles) and Newcastle (40 miles).

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail

On Wed, 26 May 2004 17:41:00 +0100, Kay Easton
wrote:

In article om, Dave
Liquorice writes
On Tue, 25 May 2004 23:54:48 +0100, Steve Black wrote:

Lights in the garden look nice ...

Matter of opinion, I guess if you live somewhere where the night sky
is already orange from street lights you don't care about light
pollution. Up here I consider uncontrolled external lighting that is
on for no good reason, ie no one out there working or moving about,
really rather anti-social.

and they deter Burglars.

I doubt a burglar would worry about a tiddly solar glimmer, if he was
he'd just pull it up and stick it in the wheelie bin, under a bush or
something.


But then a tiddly solar glimmer isn't going to be very antisocial, and,
since many of them have their solar panel on top, very little of the
light can escape upwards.

I do worry about the effects of powerful lights left on all night - all
that unnecessary energy usage - but then, as a computer owner I'm hardly
whiter than white myself. And what effect does one set of garden lights
have compared with the barrage of illuminated signs at the garage down
the road?

Did you ever fly over South Holland at night? The light pollution from
greenhouses growing mainly flowers is probably about as bad as it
gets.

In article , Rachael of Nex, the Wiccan
Rat writes

I find the best deterrent is two huge German Shepherd dogs. They don't even
have to meet the burglar to be sucessful - the mere sight of two huge beasts
snarling at the windows, baying for the blood of the unwelcome tends to
deter tea leaves, even if they *are* confident they could sue us (don't get
me started on such laws) for getting bitten after breaking in - that ain't
much compensation to you if you've got no face and no genitalia ! Cold
callers have stopped coming round too, which isn't half bad. ;-)

We have friends of friends who had a big dog.
The burglars put poisoned meat through the letter box and broke in once
the dog was on its last legs ((((((
--
Jane Ransom in Lancaster.
I won't respond to private emails that are on topic for urg
but if you need to email me for any other reason, put ransoms
at jandg dot demon dot co dot uk where you see

"Jane Ransom" wrote in message
...
In article , Rachael of Nex, the Wiccan
Rat writes

I find the best deterrent is two huge German Shepherd dogs. They don't
even
have to meet the burglar to be sucessful - the mere sight of two huge
beasts
snarling at the windows, baying for the blood of the unwelcome tends to
deter tea leaves, even if they *are* confident they could sue us (don't
get
me started on such laws) for getting bitten after breaking in - that
ain't
much compensation to you if you've got no face and no genitalia ! Cold
callers have stopped coming round too, which isn't half bad. ;-)

We have friends of friends who had a big dog.
The burglars put poisoned meat through the letter box and broke in once
the dog was on its last legs ((((((


I'm sorry to hear that. I saw that trick coming years ago (my dad used to
fit security systems to houses and commercial properties, so I'm aware of a
few such nasty techniques) and got an outside (metal lockable) letter box.
Fifteen quid from the local diy shop, shove it on the wall outside, no more
concerns ! If anyone is nuts enough to want to steal my junk mail (no-one
has so far) then it's no great loss.

A box to catch the mail or other items screwed on the inside of the door
works too, but my door is one that won't give space for that.


Rachael