My friend had light switches that glowed with a bright blue LED glow.
I couldn’t stand it. I prefer to sleep in the actual darkness.
Blue light is horrible for sleeping. Red would be a lot more tolerable and less noticeable at night.
There were gentle warm orange neon switches that were popular in the 60-70s I think. They were in my cousin’s house in a bunch of rooms and bathrooms.
By Neon I mean these:
Lots of extension cords have them to let you know they’re live too.
Edit: I guess they still make them!
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They make switches with built-in LED lights along the bottom for this.
It’s a risky investment. Many people hate having lights glowing when they’re trying to sleep.
Look for LED wall switches on Amazon. They come in a dozen versions: light shines up, lights in the faceplate, the switch itself glows… Any version you could possibly want.
I installed one of these in a hallway. It was nice to know exactly where the light switch was, since it was not near a doorway or other nighttime landmark. I’d hate it in my bedroom.
I think they’re good for “common” areas, but my wife hates highlights of all kinds. We have a low-key war going on where I’ll randomly put a nightlight somewhere, and she’ll find it after a week or so and remove it.
Not in bedrooms, though; I agree on that. Although, I put one of this motion-triggered light bars in her walk-in closet, and she likes that enough to keep it charged herself.
Smart switches are so nice
Going to bed? One touch of a widget on my phone’s home screen and all my house lights go off.
Front porch lights need to be on a timer? Smart switches do that
I recommend Kasa brand. Look for refurbished ones and you can get them under $10 a piece.
Easily worth ~$8 dollars per switch if you’re doing it new.
I think worth ~$12 if you’re willing to replace yourself
Man, this has taken me forever to respond to. There’s no reason, really, except it was in a run of comments I thought would take longer responses and I shelved for desktop time. ¯\(ツ)/¯
I completely agree about new build - it adds such a small amount proportional to the overall cost. Even when upgrading, I just do a few switches a year, as I notice them. Like, the most commonly used ones get replaced first, but after that it’s just when I find myself thinking, “I really need to automate this one” that I change them. I swapped out several wall sockets after the first Christmas in our current house, for example.
That would annoy me. I’m staying in a hotel at the moment where the TV can’t be turned off at the mains so the standby light is always on which is annoying the hell out of me.
I was in a hotel last month that had that, and the led was blue as well. I pulled it forward out of it’s little cubby and unplugged that fucker right away. I meant to plug it back before checkout, but I forgot, oops.
LPT: Pack a small roll of black electrical tape with you next time.
I remember having glow in the dark light switches when I was a kid in my parents home in the 90s
I mean you could simply put luminescent(?) stars on it
Better yet, I’ve seen some light switches made of the same glow in the dark material.
And some on the wall for visitors.
Or paint or a bunch of things.
Problem of course is that this tends to stop glowing after an hour or two.
Which may be a feature if you want/need total darkness to sleep.
I have a Tent with built in LED lighting and the switch is illuminated, so you can find it at 3:00AM when you go for a wee. It uses 5V over a USB-A plug. Quite nifty!
The problem is that it does not adhere to the USB spec so after a minute, the power bank decides that nothing is connected and stops supplying power (as a safety feature). You then have to wake up the power bank back up to can find the light switch, which you can’t do without lights on.
I have a keychain with a tritium vial. It was advertised as a tent zipper locator. I just put it on my car keys and like looking at the light when it’s hanging up in the dark
Some switches here in europe have little neon indicators that come up when the switch is off, with filament bulbs they also acted as check lights to see if the filament was blown. Broken bulb, neon off. With that said most led lamps tend to glow a bit even when off unless you take the neon module out
Those do exist, and you can buy them at a hardware store to install yourself (they will usually be wherever the child’s room stuff is). Actual “glow in the dark” covers are easy to replace the standard ones with. They also have fancy ones with actual LEDs in them; those will requiring wiring up, though.
They even have the switch part itself with lights in them if you literally mean the flicky part and not the rectangle cover.
They use to be. I’ve grown up with light switches with a neon element inside them and also been in places that have florescent switches. When I turned 18, I stopped seeing anything of the sort. Though you can get glow in dark outlet panels. That’s about as good. I’ve seen people put glow in dark stickers on the panels too.
You can get clear switches with an LED in them that is lit when the light switch is off. I swapped out the switches in my windowless kitchen. They look pretty industrial though.
I remember my dad installed a switch with a little light in it decades ago. If the switch was off the little light would be on so you could find the switch. I wouldn’t want it everywhere, but certainly helpful in some locations.
Get some glow in the dark sticky tape and put it on the switches, works like a charm, been using it for years.
Sure, but not in the home.
In the hallway, bathroom, kitchen, living room, basement, etc. would be fine. Useful even at 3-4 am. In the bedroom would be intolerable.
You can get cheap switches with very dim LED lights inside the switch itself. You can’t see the LED glow when it’s daytime, but at night they are just bright enough to tell you where the switch is at.
Are they LEDs or neon lamps?
Idk, but it said LEDs on the sticker
Here ya go.
https://www.technoglowproducts.com/glow-in-the-dark-light-switch-stickers/
I’m certain that you could probably make the stickers yourself though, now that you know they exist.
