One of the specialist light level sensors we use is this twilight sensor which is mounted on the north side of our home, just under the roof line. This provides a binary output and not an actual light level.
This single sensor can be used to automate a wide range of lighting and enables it to adapt to local weather conditions (cloud, etc.). In our contextual smart home, it is used as one input (into a controller to control safety lighting, garden lighting and a lot of convenience lighting.
Positioning of twilight sensors is important and they must be high enough up, so as not to be affected by street lighting and other lighting on your home, or that of your neighbours.
Our project to install a Twilight sensor on our smart home.
