House-cooling advice for fraidy cats
February 3, 2011 4:22 AM Subscribe
It's really hot. I need to let the breeze through my house while minimising risk of invitin burglars.
I want to leave my front and back doors open overnight to let in a nice breeze that's finally appeared. I have a security grill on the front door, which obviously I have locked.
The questions are:
- is there any reason not to do this, assuming the grill is secure? (I don't know if it is but I suspect it's harder to break into than the door itself.
- should I leave a light on all night? I live in a built up area where at least a few people of varied sorts are bound to walk past during the night. If the light is on, it's more obvious our door is open at like 3am. If the lights are all out, it's more obvious that we're asleep and vulnerable.
It's also possible I am worrying needlessly. In which case I trust someone will tell me :)
I want to leave my front and back doors open overnight to let in a nice breeze that's finally appeared. I have a security grill on the front door, which obviously I have locked.
The questions are:
- is there any reason not to do this, assuming the grill is secure? (I don't know if it is but I suspect it's harder to break into than the door itself.
- should I leave a light on all night? I live in a built up area where at least a few people of varied sorts are bound to walk past during the night. If the light is on, it's more obvious our door is open at like 3am. If the lights are all out, it's more obvious that we're asleep and vulnerable.
It's also possible I am worrying needlessly. In which case I trust someone will tell me :)
Response by poster: Yeah it's fairly inner city here. Only thing stopping someone getting in the back would be the garage roller-door, but that part of it is mlre complicated .
We sleep upstairs. The thing is though, when I try to think of what might happen if I leave the front door open that couldn't happen if I close it, and all I get is that someone could throw something incendiary in the house and we would be trapped upstairs. Which seems, I dunno, paranoid...
Unfortunately the windows are no help at all. This house was designed and renovated by morons.
posted by 8k at 4:45 AM on February 3, 2011
We sleep upstairs. The thing is though, when I try to think of what might happen if I leave the front door open that couldn't happen if I close it, and all I get is that someone could throw something incendiary in the house and we would be trapped upstairs. Which seems, I dunno, paranoid...
Unfortunately the windows are no help at all. This house was designed and renovated by morons.
posted by 8k at 4:45 AM on February 3, 2011
Judging by your profile (and weather complaints), you are in Canberra. So my advice is: don't do it! We are in Canberra, on the second story of an apartment block, and do not even face the road. But we still got burgled last summer when we left our balcony door unlocked and open (but the screen door shut and locked.) Admittedly the screen door was not a security screen, but still, the burglars had to climb the wall of the house onto the balcony to reach it. Canberra burglars are persistent buggers. The police said summer is really busy for them with burglaries that take place when people leave doors open because of the heat.
The good news is that Canberra burglars don't seem too dangerous: the police said that all the cases they had attended to were, like ours, quick in-and-outs and no disturbance of the sleeping residents.
posted by lollusc at 4:46 AM on February 3, 2011
The good news is that Canberra burglars don't seem too dangerous: the police said that all the cases they had attended to were, like ours, quick in-and-outs and no disturbance of the sleeping residents.
posted by lollusc at 4:46 AM on February 3, 2011
Response by poster: Lollusc I'm actually in Sydney, in a semi-colourful area. I think you're right though. I remember hearing similar things from cops back when I had to talk to them regularly. (And a correlated point: when it's really wet apparently 'the crooks stay home'.)
posted by 8k at 4:53 AM on February 3, 2011
posted by 8k at 4:53 AM on February 3, 2011
It seems like a bad idea. Probably leaving the front door open with the locked security grill is okay, but not leaving the back door open. Why not just pitch a tent and sleep outside?
posted by KokuRyu at 6:42 AM on February 3, 2011
posted by KokuRyu at 6:42 AM on February 3, 2011
Probably leaving the front door open with the locked security grill is okay,
I used to know a girl in NYC who lived in a ground floor flat in the Village with very impressive bars on her windows and on a hot summer night someone with a very long pole reached in and hooked her purse.
posted by three blind mice at 8:19 AM on February 3, 2011
I used to know a girl in NYC who lived in a ground floor flat in the Village with very impressive bars on her windows and on a hot summer night someone with a very long pole reached in and hooked her purse.
posted by three blind mice at 8:19 AM on February 3, 2011
Why not get a security door for the back too?
Also a reason not to do this aside from the above, bugs.
posted by BobbyDigital at 8:21 AM on February 3, 2011 [1 favorite]
Also a reason not to do this aside from the above, bugs.
posted by BobbyDigital at 8:21 AM on February 3, 2011 [1 favorite]
I used to know a girl in NYC who lived in a ground floor flat in the Village with very impressive bars on her windows and on a hot summer night someone with a very long pole reached in and hooked her purse.
In our case, neighborhood kids used a broom handle to hook the edge of a lightweight desk and drag it across the room, then they just folded up our laptop and passed it through the bars.
posted by hermitosis at 8:48 AM on February 3, 2011
In our case, neighborhood kids used a broom handle to hook the edge of a lightweight desk and drag it across the room, then they just folded up our laptop and passed it through the bars.
posted by hermitosis at 8:48 AM on February 3, 2011
Do you have upstairs windows? That's where I would concentrate. Fan blowing out of one window and in another window. When I had a two story house upstairs was noticeably warmer. If you can get upstairs cooler downstairs will also be cooler
posted by notned at 9:04 AM on February 3, 2011
posted by notned at 9:04 AM on February 3, 2011
I used to live in a sort of not-quite-urban-not-quite-suburban place where I felt pretty comfortable, nice neighbors, etc and would sleep with the back door open when it was hot. The back yard had pretty high fence. One day a police officer came to my door asking for permission to search my yard. He said there'd been a murder a few blocks away, and they thought the shooter had climbed through my yard while fleeing the scene.
Yeah. I didn't sleep with my back door open after that.
posted by galadriel at 9:25 AM on February 3, 2011
Yeah. I didn't sleep with my back door open after that.
posted by galadriel at 9:25 AM on February 3, 2011
Do you live in a part of town where drunks tend to wander through? I wouldn't leave my door open but screened, lest someone think it a perfect spot for a sheltered midnight piss.
posted by mollymayhem at 1:22 PM on February 3, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by mollymayhem at 1:22 PM on February 3, 2011 [1 favorite]
If you have a security grill it should be enough. That's why it exists after all. I used to use one and didn't have an issue, just make sure it's sturdy and not that fine wire that can be cut through.
posted by Jubey at 3:01 PM on February 3, 2011
posted by Jubey at 3:01 PM on February 3, 2011
We line in inner-city Perth and we used to regularly leave our door open with just the security screen door shut and locked until we installed A/C. Never had a problem.
Our security screens are relatively new and the top of the range ones, however, and would be a lot harder to break down than our actual door.
posted by jasperella at 10:48 PM on February 3, 2011
Our security screens are relatively new and the top of the range ones, however, and would be a lot harder to break down than our actual door.
posted by jasperella at 10:48 PM on February 3, 2011
Response by poster: Thanks all. It seems opinion is divided - no wonder I felt so indecisive last night!
Yeah the thing I wondered was that I usually just leave the door locked, but the grill unlocked (because I don't like the idea of being trapped in the house). However I think the front door would be much easier to break into than the grill. It is really the idea of someone pissing/lobbing a firebomb/getting clever with a pole that bothers me. But technically, with a big strong grill, it should be more secure than we are on a normal night.
I think it's the back door that's really the problem here... well, at least it's meant to cool down in a couple of days.
posted by 8k at 3:36 AM on February 4, 2011
Yeah the thing I wondered was that I usually just leave the door locked, but the grill unlocked (because I don't like the idea of being trapped in the house). However I think the front door would be much easier to break into than the grill. It is really the idea of someone pissing/lobbing a firebomb/getting clever with a pole that bothers me. But technically, with a big strong grill, it should be more secure than we are on a normal night.
I think it's the back door that's really the problem here... well, at least it's meant to cool down in a couple of days.
posted by 8k at 3:36 AM on February 4, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
Is your bedroom/sleeping area on the same floor as the front and back doors? What kind of security keeps people from getting to your back door?
I would open windows, if you could. Many windows have locks that allow you to open only so high, so that, even if they're open to a point, it's still too narrow for someone to squeeze through.
posted by xingcat at 4:32 AM on February 3, 2011