My dog is old and mostly blind, and when she goes out at night she has a tendency to get lost in the yard. I want to put up a light by the door, because she can see enough that she could find her way back to the light, instead of me getting up to lead her in.
There’s no outlet near the back door and I’m renting, so the easiest solution is to put up a battery-powered light. The problem is that these all seem to have motion sensors, so that it’ll turn on when she goes out, but after a couple of minutes of her blundering around it will turn itself off and the problem will reassert itself.
Anyone know of a battery-powered lamp that will turn itself on when it gets dark and stay on until daytime, without a motion sensor?
I guess I could get one of those solar-powered lights that go in the ground that you use to line a pathway…maybe that’s the best solution, though somehow it seems more elegant to put something on the wall. Maybe more of a thief deterrent, too.
I can’t imagine that such a battery powered light would last more than a few days. Maybe you could get some low powered LED battery powered light that won’t be too bad, but you’re going to be changed batteries a lot.
There are battery powered decorative lights like this. It will turn on at the same time every day, and remain on for a few hours (6 hours for this model). We have one we use for holiday decorations and the C batteries seem to last a month or so. This particular model isn’t designed for outdoor use so you’ll need to protect the battery box from rain somehow.
I don’t think the solar powered lights remain lit all night.
You’re right, the thing about motion activation/shutoff is that it saves battery life.
I’ve had the solar-powered lights at my last house; unsurprisingly the better quality ones stay on longer. I’ve had occasion to leave my (other) house early in the morning and was surprised to see them still lit at 5AM. But the charge/discharge cycle wears them all out eventually.
Still, this is only a temporary solution; we’ll move soon, and the dog may well die before that, and meanwhile I’ll get more sleep.
What if you got a couple strings of bright white LED Christmas lights and plugged them in to a dusk-to-dawn timer and strung them around the doorway?
I got the one below for my Christmas lights. It comes on at dusk and can stay on for hourly increments that you set. So if your dog is only going to need light for 4 hours after dark then you can save a few hours of lighting per day.
I have two of these which I like a lot, but they are motion activated. They do, however, have a control that sets the length of “On” time. As I have both of mine set to the midpoint of that control, I don’t have an idea how long they’ll stay on at their maximum setting, but at its max setting I would think that the light would stay on as long as the dog was triggering the light.
This one seems to be a bit better (and cheaper) and the description by the seller indicates “The time can be set to 3s, 30s, 60s, 90s, 120s, 240s, … 600s.”
If you can open it up, the motion sensor can be bypassed - it is, after all, just a switch.
I found the previous owner had installed a complete burglar system with motion sensors, so it was no surprise to find a cheap Home Depot-grade motion controlled external flood lights - it took about 3 minutes to cut the wires going to the sensor and joining them with a wire nut.Now the switch inside operates the light directly.
Thanks for the additional responses. The problem with a motion sensor-activated light that has a longer “wait time” is this–the door she uses is around a corner from the yard she wanders around in, so there’s no guarantee she’ll trip it again after she goes out. Because I’m asleep when she goes out, I don’t know how long it takes her to get frustrated and bark until I go get her. If the wait time is half an hour, probably good. Ten minutes, I doubt it.
Bypassing the motion sensor, which maybe I could do on my own, just gets me a light which eats batteries. Remember there is no convenient outlet to this door, and as it’s a rental I’m not paying to rewire and neither is my landlord.
Window in the door? Hang a light on inside shining through it. Most likely some type of handheld shop light that you can hang from a suction cup and plug in inside the house. Some come with 15-20’ cords. Also check into rechargeable handheld work lights that you can hang or set just outside the door. Get one with a magnetic back if you have a steel door. Many will run 5-6 hours on a charge but be a bit pricier. Don’t know how vital it is to you that it come on at dusk as opposed to you turning it on at dusk. You said no outlet near the door outside. How far is one that a cord could reach? Then just put a led light on it 24/7.
There IS a light inside the door which we leave on all night anyway–so she can find the door on her way out. Doesn’t seem to help on the return voyage–once around the corner she can’t see the light shining through the window.
I found a pretty robust solar-powered LED spotlight today that I’m trying; I positioned it so that, I hope, it will illuminate the door but also be visible from the rest of the yard.