May sound 'goofy', but a serious 'tactical' question

Any night lights should illuminate the intruder, with minimal chance of illuminating you. In general, the best strategy for defending your home is to get everyone into the designated safe room (typically the master bedroom) and force the intruder to come to you.

I keep red Cyalume light sticks handy in case I have to toss them around a corner to illuminate a side passage. Red does not degrade your night vision as do white light and other colors. They can also be attached to house keys and floor plans, to toss to responding officers - this could save you the cost and inconvenience of replacing a door.

Sounds like

Sounds like it's time to get someone you trust I MEAN TRUST! and do some drilliing and then get feedback.
Using the lightsticks esp around the corners is a great tatic except if there is an intruder, you better have your gun draw, because this will be like throwing a lit match on the gas trail. It'l caus the intruder to go ballistic. Better hope His trainiing is n't better thant yours.

Make a safe room reenforce everything and upgrade on all hardware and double up on others. Lilke the other poster said maken the bad guy come to you while you wait for 911. If the door does get broken down make sure you don't shoot the nice firemen or the police person.

What about getting some pretty high wattage motion sensitive spot lights that shoot down the hallway? If you have a bathroom in the master bedroom you would not trip them. Might be an issue if the kiddies have to use a non-attached bathroom that crosses the path, or need to get to you at night.
Instead of motion sensitive, how about getting them on a switch in your bedroom activated manually or as part of the alarm system?

critter,

What arrangements have you made to make sure you are awake in the event someone pays you an unexpected nocturnal visit? Do you have an alarm system? A dog in the house? Not all intruders are going to be of the smash-down-the-door-loudly variety that give you a second or two of warning. As a for-instance, take a look at a recent story from Baltimore at http://www.wbaltv.com/news/14061650/detail.html .

First thing you need to do IMHO is to make sure you have arranged things so you will be awake if anything odd happens. Then you can worry about taking care of the proper lighting for the occasion.

Personally I want to be able to backlight the bedroom doorway, so that anything appearing therein is a silhouette. I want no light at all in the bedroom/saferoom itself, and a barrier (the bed) between me and the doorway.

We use a couple of nightlights outside our bedroom door that have a 'power failure' feature built in. If the power goes off, there's a couple of AA rechargeable batteries in the nightlight which power a small incandescent light for a while. I replaced the batteries not long ago, they were getting tired to the point they wouldn't run the light very long. Sometimes uninvited guests of the antisocial sort will pull both the power and the phone lines on a house they are visiting before they go in. We keep a cell phone in the bedroom too.

We also use an X-10 security system, with lamp modules installed in the living room and a control module by the bed. With this setup you can turn on the lamps in the living room (or anywhere else you set the system up to control) from the bedroom, and backlight anything approaching the bedroom door. If the alarm goes off, these same lamps flash on and off as well. http://www.x10.com/homepage.htm , you can get the control modules and lamp modules at Radio Shack.

Most importantly, there's a hundred pounds of Fila asleep somewhere in the house, unless something wakes her up. This morning at about 3:30 she woke me up, growling and barking at the front door. What really got my attention was that the motion detector light by the front door was on. It only runs for about 30 seconds when activated and then shuts off.

So, I laid hands on a shotgun, got the little dog (a Brittany) out of her crate, waited for the light to go out, switched it off and then let both the dogs out the door. Did I mention there's a 5-foot tall fence around our yard with a hotwire at the top, and the gates are padlocked?

Whatever had activated the light was four legged by the way the dogs reacted to the scent trail across the front yard. Cats and raccoons climb the fence posts without getting into the hotwire occasionally, all I can figure was that one of them had gotten big dog's attention somehow. And she got mine. It's the first time that has ever happened, it was definitely an interesting sensation waking up to her barking/growling and that light being on. I didn't get back to sleep until I took a nap this afternoon 8^).

Not 'goofy' at all, it is an important part of your planning.

lpl/nc

A laser sight is also a good addition.In addition to providing an intimidation factor ,the laser also illuminates the target area as well as allowing you to focus on the larger picture rather than finding your sights.

Nightlights have some good value. You can use them to directly illuminate but you can also use them to cast a person’s shadow. You can place them so that you can see a persons shadow cast on a wall or under a door. You then can be alerted to a person’s presence in another room without looking around a corner or opening the door. I have a light at the base of a stairway leading up to the main part of the house. If a person walks up the stairway a shadow is cast on the wall at the top of the stairs. This keeps me from a surprise while going around in front of the top of the stairs.

What Taliv said. Instead of the usual night lights, though, consider using Garrity's E2 or LED rechargeables. When the power goes out they switch into a flashlight mode that provides bright illumination. Garrity makes several kinds of rechargeables including flashlights that can remain plugged in for years and flash on during power failures. We've had several in service for about fifteen years or so.

Okay, the muse struck me.

Personally, my hold-out point is the top of the stairs. The guns are safe in the basement, and I'm not risking my life for my dog's (a hard decision, though, lest you think I am insensitive.)

Say you've got night lights downstairs, so at least if your eyes are dark-adjusted you could see somebody coming up. The actual night light(s) used by you could be between the kid's room and the bathroom.

You wake up, grab the gun and make tracks to the top of the stairs. Meanwhile, your wife grabs the kids, unplugs the night light and jumps (with kids) into the tub, a la Connery in "The Rock" with the hand grenade?

Next thread topic being the bullet-resistance of porcelain bathtubs..

my son has a motion night light

how about a motion light that is right over your bedroom door and points down the hall away from the door so they are blinded and you can see real good?

Lee Lapin, have you had any problems from your X-10 security system? And how long has it been in service?

We installed a bunch of X-10 light control devices about 30 years or so ago and each of them failed within a few years. (I don't remember the details of the failures.) The idea is attractive, though, and I'd probably give it another try if the devices are now stable.

A laser sight is also a good addition.In addition to providing an intimidation factor ,the laser also illuminates the target area as well as allowing you to focus on the larger picture rather than finding your sights.

Click to expand...

I think I need new batteries in the Laser on one of my SD firearms. It doesn't really "illuminate" much-- if at all.


This isn't a goofy question, OP. It's made me think a bit about how I have things set up.

I think the Floor Plan of your home has a lot to do with what you would do. Most modern homes have an open floorplan where light from one room can light a large area. Older homes had smaller rooms and more doors/halls.

My home is a combination of both. It's a OLD house built by my G-Grandfather. For me, I'd just move from light to light. Meaning, I'd go from my Master Bedroom to the Living room. Then to the Dining Room and then to Kitchen. This allows me to get to the Guest Bedroom and Study-- which would be lit once I get to the kitchen. Because of my floorplan, I can then move back up through the hall now that it has light.

We don't have a safe room in our home for things like this. Likely, my wife would remain in the Master Bedroom with her Glock or an AK. My coming up the hall would have us meet back there.

The biggest concern with this is that I need to be yelling out loudly to the wife that I am entering the Master Bedroom in order to not get MYSELF shot by her.

We've had these discussions and it is understood that we can't have two people searching the house. Two mobile people stand a strong chance of one getting shot. So she stays put cornered up in the Bedroom with a firearm, and I check things.


The same rules apply if I have to check something outside.


One thing I wanted to mention that is a great advantage to me is that I have two Jack Russell Terriers that sleep in bed with me at night. If ANYTHING goes bump, I'll be awake. If ANYTHING is in the house, there isn't much searching for me. They will lead me straight to whoever comes in.


Just last night, I didn't sleep well at all because the Full Moon had every Coyete in the area howling. My youngest JRT wanted to go whip them all-- ALL night.



-- John

i have a few of these around...
http://my.datexx.com/consumer/productinfo.html?p=LED-92M


they work well for me, i have no complaints
i like the fact that they have battery backup and can be used as a flashlight (not a great flashlight, but enough to find your way around until you can locate your real flashlights/lanterns/etc)

if interested be sure to search around online, i found them for about half price plus shipping when i bought mine

I knew a guy in the past who installed a mega-bright light in the top landing of his staircase. Due to the layout of the house it would illuminate the staircase, front door, and livingroom as well as most of his kitchen. The switch for that light was in the bedroom by the door. His plan was that any odd noise would be met by this blinding halogen light while he lay flat on the landing off to one side. Anyone looking in his direction would be blinded.

So far as I know he's only had to "test" it once when his son came home drunk and tried to "sneak in" via the dining room window.