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Comment by zh3

23 days ago

In a similar vein, many years ago I helped someone with a similar problem with a neighbour who had the volume too loud. As the aerial cable was accessible, I suggested he stick a pin through the neighbour's cable whenever the volume got too loud, and pull it out when the volume went down.

Sure enough, after a while the neighbour learnt their TV only worked if they kept the volume down in the evening.

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zh3

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binaryturtle  23 days ago

I wish there was an easy solution like this for smoking "neighbours". Some sort of detection device that instantly closes my windows automatically and then "explodes" a nasty "stinking bomb" outside (e.g. automatic opening of a container with butyric acid or similar), so it smells worse than their smoke. Eventually their brains would connect smoking with nasty stinking and stop doing it.

But I wouldn't know where to start. :-\

  • herf  23 days ago

    "Noftsker also shared the hacker aversion to cigarette smoke, and would sometimes express his displeasure by shooting a jet of pure oxygen from a canister he kept for that purpose; the astonished smoker would find his or her cigarette bursting into a fierce orange blur."

    - Hackers, Steven Levy, 1984

  • WA  23 days ago

    No smokers in my neighborhood, but people use their goddamn fireplaces too much and it’s kinda impossible to get fresh air in winter evenings and often during the day. Not sure how to train them. And unfortunately, there are too many. Burning wood should be forbidden in residential areas. It’s similar to smoking in restaurants, except you can’t escape them.

    • adsteel_  23 days ago

      My romantic views of wood smoke hit reality when I first camped in Canada's Banff-Jasper national parks, where you could buy unlimited firewood for the night for $5. Everyone bought it, it seemed. Trying to breathe downwind of a campground was a rude wakeup call. It should definitely be restricted in denser residential areas. I can't imagine some of the towns in Germany or Poland where residents depend on wood fires for heat.

      18 replies →

    • j-conn  23 days ago

      100% agree, many people don’t realize just how harmful wood smoke is. It’s also the main source of pollution in the Bay Area during the winter. Unfortunately energy costs are high enough here that people resort to burning wood to save money, so collectively beneficial policies are likely to face resistance (understandably).

      The purpleair map has been awesome to at least make the problem visible. I hope they are using it to aid enforcement on spare the air days.

      23 replies →

    • carey  23 days ago

      The atmosphere above Christchurch, NZ tends to form layers in winter that trap the smoke and make this worse, and new fireplaces have been restricted to clean-burning log burners and dry wood by law.

      It seemed like the biggest change in air quality in recent years came from the tragic earthquakes in 2010 and 2011 knocking down all the unreinforced-masonry chimneys, though.

      2 replies →

    • namibj  22 days ago

      Well, it's not the burning of the wood as such, but the lack of flue gas treatment. I too wish we had much stricter imissions rules for fires in residential areas.

    • GJim  23 days ago

      > people use their goddamn fireplaces too much and it’s kinda impossible to get fresh air in winter evenings

      Not a problem with a properly designed HEATAS approved wood burning stove and properly seasoned beach wood.

      Being daft enough to buy an inefficient, unapproved stove and/or and burn unseasoned green wood is ridiculous. Not to mention its illegal to sell small quantities of unseasoned firewood in Blighty; large amounts to season yourself are fine.

      EDIT: If you disagree with the above, then get off your arse and write a rebuttal saying why! Downvoting simply because you disagree (rather than because the text doesn't add to the conversation) simply turns arguments into a popularity contest and is turning this place into another Reddit. (A statement of fact, no matter what the old HN guidelines say about Reddit).

  • 1e1a  23 days ago

    What about a really loud fire alarm outside your house, that goes off whenever it detects even a slight amount of smoke?

    • apparent  23 days ago

      Yep, you could point out that the purpose of the alarm is to notify you to close your windows, not to annoy the smoker.

  • LightBug1  23 days ago

    I had this problem ... a smoker who would religiously sit on their patio and smoke so much that it would smoke us out of our house.

    After speaking with them didn't help ... my next response was to religiously water the garden at the same time with my jet spray ...

    I have amusing videos (from our CCTV) of our neighbour regularly diving for cover from an "accidental" spray of water.

    "Sorry. I'm just watering our plants, sorry about that".

    I wish I could say this solved it ... but the subtlety of the point that their smoking was impacting the enjoyment of our home, in the same way as my water spray was impacting his enjoyment of his garden was lost on them ...

    We eventually settled it the old fashioned way. Not with pistols or swords ... but an old-fashioned chat after reporting them to the local council.

    Luckily the problem is resolved ... but largely due to the threat of the Council taking action against their landlord.

    The only solution is leverage ...

  • acid_dog  22 days ago

    We had a similar problem and used to spray those air freshener sprays towards the source of the smoke whenever we noticed it. The advantage is that those sprays can travel downwards unlike other sources of smell (our neighbor lived below us). And they can be quite strong and linger. And depending on your local laws, you can't just pollute the air with anything you choose, but it's hard to argue against air freshener ("I just wanted my smoke filled balcony to smell nice!"). Whether it worked for us, no, not really, I don't think the neighbor was even sensitive to strong smells.You could hypothetically build some kind of smoke detection system that would automate this, but I think any cigarette smoke detectors won't work better on outside air than your nose.

  • nkrisc  23 days ago

    People who smoke on the balconies of multi-unit buildings are awful people. It’d be a beautiful day but I can’t keep my windows open because there’s always somebody smoking to make my unit smell disgusting if I just want to enjoy a cool breeze going through.

    Thank goodness smoking is becoming rarer here and is no banned pretty much everywhere indoors and near entrances.

    I don’t mind if people have a vice (I’ve got mine) but keep me out of it.