A Bright Reminder

Leaving porch lights on all night can irritate next-door neighbors; adding indictor lights to jog your memory is the simple way to make new friends

Unfortunately, finding a matching switch with a built-in indicator light proved to be a futile process — and changing to another style switch was not in the cards. However, searching online (Amazon) resulted in finding dozens of small red LED lights that could be mounted in a hole just below the porch light switch assembly. I settled on LED 8mm panel-mount lights (https://amzn.to/3sGsSCp) that come in a package of five for just $5.99. These lights are designed to be mounted on a flat surface, whether it be in wood or metal. Each has a backup nut so it could be tightened and not come loose down the road. Two indicators were installed, one for the porch light and the other for the “scare” lights mounted in the corners of the fifth wheel.

Once the wiring was established, the appropriate size holes were drilled in the wall below the switches, the wires routed through the hole from the front and the retaining nut tightened.

There are a number of ways to splice into the 12-volt DC wires using connectors, but we elected to solder the positive wire from each light to the respective terminals on the switches (small wire-tap terminals can be used if you don’t have a soldering iron). After the ground wires were connected to their respective lights, the switches were turned on and off to test the indicator lights. Once confirmed, the switch assembly was re-installed, being careful that the very small wires did not become detached.

Now, when the porch and/or scare lights are on, the indicators remind me to be kind to my neighbors — and turn off the lights when not outside.