The Pi and camera consume about 11W during general operation and 15W at peak (around dawn, when data processing is taking place). Daily power consumption is around 0.3 kWh.

No. The Pi creates a LOT of heat when running and will overheat in the small space of an enclosure, especially during summer months. it will also create air currents in the camera housing which will cause the image to wobble. The Pi also has several LEDs that will create false detections. Finally, you need to be able to get to the Pi to maintain it without disturbing the camera. You may even need to connect a keyboard and monitor which will be pretty tricky on top of a ladder or hanging off the roof. Even changing SD card will be tricky atop a ladder.

No. The camera generates enough heat to keep the glass defogged even in Canada and Siberia winters.

Generally no. The pi is most likely to fail during poweron and off, and switching the Pi off without properly shutting down the software can corrupt the SD card. It is possible to put the Pi into low-power mode then resume it via software as explained here, but its complicated and really not required.

There's no need. The standard lens focal length is so short that the Sun's image is extremely small and the sensors are small enough to dissipate heat quickly. Some camera operators have had their cameras in full sun in desert locations for years without degradation and several UK operators have south-facing cameras. Also, the lenses do not have a power iris and so the sensor will still be exposed even if powered off. If you have fitted a 16mm lens you may want to consider about building some sort of shield that dropped down during the day. It would be simpler though just to reorientate the camera!

In general no its not essential. However its a good idea if you live in an area where you experience power outages or there's a risk of other household members or visitors accidentally turning off the power (our cleaner likes to switch things off!).

Definitely. During data capture the pi will get really hot and once CPU temperature exceeds 85C, the pi will slow down to protect itself. Data capture will be damaged leading to lost frames, double-imaging and unusable data. So you should fit a heatsink and fan, and keep the Pi somewhere that the ambient temperature won't get high.

As above, no! Lofts are are hot and dusty and the Pi won't like that. If you do need to keep it there you'll need to regularly check it for dust, insects and fan function. A shed should be ok as long as it is dry and animals or insects can't get into the Pi's case. A spider or mouse nest would be bad. A greenhouse would be bad for the same reason as a loft.

Firstly if you're using a Pi4, make sure you have the HDMI cable plugged into the port nearest to the power port. The other port is not enabled during boot and so the Pi can appear dead!

Secondly when not in use the Pi's screensaver will kick in so you should plug a keyboard and mouse in and strike a few keys/move the mouse (you may need to do both).

If the Pi still doesn't respond, check that its alive by pinging it from another computer on your network:

ping {ip-address-of-pi}

Also try unplugging and reattaching the monitor.

If you can access it with a keyboard and mouse but you can't connect remotely then it is likely that powersaving has disabled the wifi. See here for more advice on this problem.

If you can't access it with keyboard and mouse then check the power and status LEDs next to the SD card slot. The red LED indicates power is on. The green LED will flash every few seconds if the network is connected, and will flicker when data is being written to the card.

As long as the green light isn't flickering, you are relatively safe to power off the Pi. Unplug keyboard, monitor and mouse, wait 30 seconds then reconnect everything and power it back on. Hopefully it will now reboot cleanly.

If the Pi doesn't reboot then I'm afraid the card is likely corrupt and will need to be rebuilt. Give it another go just in case though.