I’ve generally been very happy with the solar powered light I bought from Screwfix last year. It was easy to put up and it does a decent job of providing illumination outside the front door when someone approaches. It is still working well… except for the obvious problem of solar energy in the UK.

Unfortunately, it struggles during the winter. Short and often overcast days mean that it often isn’t too many hours past the onset of darkness that it has used up the power it has managed to generate during the day. There is still a bit of street lighting although Loughborough has moved towards low powered lighting that switches off before midnight – good for eco and light pollution but not fantastic illumination. Fortunately I don’t tend to have many evening visitors and haven’t normally struggled to find my own front door!

I’ve had much better success with the doorbell, with a ringer that plugs into the mains inside and a switch which generates enough signal to activate it by virtue of the kinetic energy of being pushed. I wonder if it is possible to get a light that is powered by the weight of people walking on the short path to the front door? That would be ideal. It does look like there are systems (promising up to 30s of light from a low-power LED per step) but I wonder if there is anything that is set up for easy domestic DIY application yet?