I have some outdoor lights not in use, and they have not lit up in the house. Even outside not too good, looking at my solar panels direct sun light great 4 kW but dull day as inside the house would be down to 200 watt, same with a solar panel in the window of the caravan, idea was to keep battery charged, never worked.
Likely you could build some yourself, use a solar panel designed for a caravan to keep battery topped up with a few 3 volt lamps maybe 3 in series so 9 volt instead of 12 volt, some thing like
this may produce enough however I went to using two 12 volt batteries and swapping them around as the solar panels did not seem to cut it.
Maybe some thing like this
with the panel outside may work.
I must admit I agree with
“Empty” homes as you describe are not more secure with lights on and open curtains
I have removed most the PIR outside lights, can't see why I should make it safe for intruders, let them trip over rubbish in the garden, and seeing a torch in a house is more likely to raise the alarm to when one can roam around using provided lighting.
We were lucky we were not broken into, it was a worry when looking after my mother as insurance would not cover if left I think for more than 3 weeks unoccupied. But we never turned the power off, heating set low, and no lights switched on, we had never intended leaving it unoccupied for a couple of years, we moved in with mother so she could be released from hospital, we had not intended it to be long term.
I can't remember how long we lived with her, I know over a year and we should have paid double council tax, as if we were going to tell anyone we were not living there. Visited a few times a week to pick up mail and visit father-in-law next door but one.
But busy street, and we had lived there since they had been built so we hoped neighbours would keep an eye out. But next door had a motor bike stolen and he was living there.
