Neighbours home Security alarm!

[Elfblossom]

I live in a circular cul-de-sac and the neighbours to the front & right of me have a home security alarm on the front of their house.

I'm not sure if it's a newly fitted alarm or it's a 'thing' that's going on with it but for the last week it's been flashing a bright blue-white light.

Both myself and my daughter get migraine with auras and vomiting that are triggered by flashing lights - camera flashes, dappled sunshine through trees etc and we've both had 2 migraines this week since their alarm has started doing this. Since perimenopause, I've been getting less, one or two a year so 2 in a week is unusual.

Is the flashing a normal thing for home alarms?

It's quite a significant flash not just a little blinking 'I'm working & switched on' light type of thing.

I'm contemplating scaling their drainpipe in the dead of night to put some duct tape over it ... AIBU

YUNBU - Yeah, Do it! But make sure you post your cctv footage of it here cause it'll be hilarious!

YABU - No, don't be silly, 1, you're scared of heights, have no upper body strength and you'd definitely get the nervous giggles and fall off.

But, on a serious note (as my AIBU is, I hope evidently, in jest), any advice?

House position and a chance to show off why I passed my O'level Art 😉

10/10 for a diagram. 😁

Can you Google the brand of alarm to see if it should be flashing? Quite a few new alarms on neighbours houses and none of them flash except one which gives out a sort of blink every 10 mins.

My neighbour's does this too - and has done for years. It used to blind me in the night when I was up feeding my DD.

Probably wouldn't scale any drainpipes, but it does sound like it might be a permanent thing.

Go speak to them, they will be able to tell you if the flashing can be turned off, or perhaps they don't realise. Or if you can ask about duct tape or similar or get black out curtains.

The only house alarm I've ever been familiar with would only flash outside if the alarm had been set off - so alerts the owner when they come home that it had activated. The actual alarm bell would switch itself off after 20 mins. Is there a chance they've been away for a week and the alarm has activated at some point and not been reset because they're still away?

On a serious note, this is unacceptable! I had a neighbour opposite who had a security light that was almost like a flood light that would light up my room every time a cat or something went buy, in the winter the wind would set it of and the constant on off light beaming in my bedroom would wake me all night long...... night after night after miserable night. These bright lights are unnecessary and should not be sold as domestic lights. It must be awful for you!! How someone could be sold a bright bulb to wake others all night long and cause migraines is shocking! It's about time we as consumers (Maggie closed down all the manufacturing industry and turned us into a nation of helpless consumers!) Started to fight back and stopped this much careless intrusion into our lives. .......
Here's a random thought totally off topic but the people micromanaging our lives with climate mileage on black boxes and green taxes imposed on us via bills are the royal family and government.....not one member of parliament or a member of the royal family has solar panels, all fly around the world in private planes, own a fleet of cars, live in castles palaces and country estates that use exuberant amounts of energy and water......yet we accept the penalties, fines, bills, milage allowance etc like a weak helpless population and never question the dreadful ideas they have/incorporate into our lives. I also cannot believe that the new cars are now fitted with blinding LED lights that are extremely dangerous......I'm thinking NO WAY can this be right.....I can't be the only one surely that is now unable to drive at night and constantly blinded by the vehicle headlamps? Yet not one of us will stand up to government and their crazy ideas.....if they were that worried about energy usage why have the street lamps on all night long? Why allow hundreds of office blocks to be lit up all night with computers running? I'd hate it if I was being kept up/damaged via migrains by my neighbours around me, it's about time we stood up against these companies to devise new ways to blind us, force the government to lower the brightness of domestic security lights being sold. In the meantime you'll either have to put up with it or talk to your neighbours.

Lots of them do flash constantly- supposedly as a deterrent- I have a flashy light, which means I have a security system, don't rob this house. I really don't know if they can be turned off- you can ask, but if not, not sure what you're next step will be.

Are you giving up your car anything soon or anything to be more environmentally friendly.

Sometimes the knowledge can be correct even if others don't necessarily follow it themselves

I have solar panels on roof, use string lights in glass bottles instead of using light bulbs in the evening. Have a water but to water the garden, have a dishwasher that uses just seven leters of water for the entire days washing up, rather than wash up breakfast, lunch, cups glasses pots pans dinner and supper plates individually all day long. I shower with the hot water from my solar energy in the evening. I used to take the bus to work and walk to the shops with a shopping trolley but as I've gotten older I've cut my hours to two days a week (22 years in the NHS has given me scoliosis in my lower spine disk degeneration in my neck lifting patients and COPD from changing sheets daily (daily dose of linin fibers play havoc with lungs,) so I drive to work and do my shopping on the way home! Yes I've done all I can to help the environment including planting and growing specific flowers to encourage bees n butterflies, use a solution of washing up liquid n water to discourage white n black fly, never pesticides or weed killer or slug pellets. I also have a electric free mower that works on blades only for my grass. I never go abroad because of health n mobility problems so have no air miles. Your post was unnecessary and no I don't claim disability benefits either. If only the royal family, the rich and members of government would do the same......

I've got blackout curtains and when they're closed I can't see it but to close them or put the bin out or leave the house after sunset I'm having to do a heads down, shield my eyeline don't look palaver.

I have one of these over the road at me.

I think as someone else says, it flashes after the alarm has been triggered. This can happen also if there is a power cut.

Are your neighbours actually at home ? Maybe they have gone on holiday.

It's really not that bad. Unless yours is much more powerful or flashes faster it would be hard to see how it would cause anyone any issues.

So, we figured out why it's triggering migraines (and I hope no one in the area is light sensitive epileptic) ...

It's because it has a Strobe light!

Honestly really pees me off that these things are used & if it triggers migraine or seizures (which can be fatal) then 'oh well'.

Same as flash photography in TV & film, why is it necessary?

Both my alarm systems flash red constantly. If either have been triggered in my absence they flash much faster.

The boxes though are positioned so they don't flash in anyone's windows. I would be very annoyed with a bright strobing one.