Bl***y floodlight.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

There is a block of flats to the back of my house, and to the right of it. The area leading to the garages has floodlights. SON type, so pretty bright. Seem to be meant to be on from dark to about midnight, judging by the good ones.

The one closest to me fires up throughout the day, gets up to full brightness, then switches off. Does this when dark too. Has likely been worked on as it no longer points to the ground - but straight at my house. Very annoying, now the evenings are dark and squirts right into my eyes when I'm using the kitchen.

The block was originally council, but I'd guess most if not all are now private. Did find someone called the caretaker, and complained to him, but that was ages ago, and nothing has been done.

Any tips - other than a shotgun?

[Brian Gaff]

A good marksman with a crossbow is more discrete. Brian

[newshound]

Airgun even more so, unless you can be sure of retrieving the quarrel.

[Chris Hogg]

Or even a catapult!

[Bill Wright]

How high above the ground is it?

Bill

[Terry Casey]

That doesn't matter, Dave.

Our daughter is about to move into a flat in a council block. Some of the flats, like hers, are privately owned but there are also council tenants there.

The important thing is that the building is still owned by the local authority and leaese out the private flats, whose owners are still bound by the councils leasing regulations.

Contact the council to find out if they still own it.

In the unlikely event that the have sold the entire building to someone else, a Land Registry search will tell you who to contact.

[alan_m]

Mirror and redirect light back up to a window of one of the residents?

[Tim+]

Probably no help but amusing reading...

Tim

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[Marland]

Ice cubes from a deep freeze are fairly solid if used as catapult ammunition ,and then the evidence melts away.

GH

[Dave W]

Good idea, but it would have to be a large parabolic dish specially profiled for the focus to be at their window. Or an easier solution would to use a mirrored satellite dish with a plane mirror in place of its LNB, thus reflecting light back. The dish would have to be of large diameter to reflect a sufficiently annoying amount of light.

[DerbyBorn]

Unfortunately there are Electricians and DIY types who think it is important that a floodlight is aimed to light up far away things and have about 50% of the light wasted into the sky. Even new builds are getting it wrong. The luminaires are poor designs - they should have a hood to give a cut- off.

[Pamela]

On 16:02 7 Dec 2018, "Dave Plowman (News)" [e-mail]> wrote in news: [e-mail]:

The local council should deal with statutory nuisances from any property (not just council accomodation).

In practice, maybe it would be easier to go over with a ladder and reposition the floodlight yourself.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

About 30 ft.

[Graham.]

Yes, there is a need for a BSI standard or something like that for these lights.

One issue is the ones that have a PIR detector immediately below the lamp.

If you try to be a good neighbour and aim the lamp so the top of the beam slopes down, and does not encroach on the property opposite, you find that you can't then aim the PIR high enough to obtain the required range.

[Bill Wright]

So why do top opening windows reflect very brightly for miles?

Bill

[The Natural Philosopher]

probably. You would need to make a heavy tip for stability but icicles are fairly strong..

[The Natural Philosopher]

Cos Dave W hasnt got his optics straight. Plane mirror is all you need. With point light sources.

[Brian Gaff]

I'm not sure the energy would be enough to break it with an air gun, Hypothetically of course. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

I somehow think the accuracy of a flying ice cube from a catapult might be a little low.

On the legal side, there has to be a service contract for the lights with some company. They do often tend to have their name on a sign or a van. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Of course if Hollywood was making a film of this they would have a drone with a can of spray paint on it hover in front of the light and spray the glass black, or maybe drop a small bag over it from above. Brian