surveillance for homes when power is off

[Roger Rustad]

Some friends would like to set up cameras for properties after they turn off the electricity to the property, and I'm looking into some ultra cheap solutions to do that. (Fortunately, these all have cell coverage.)

Couple of ideas I had...

• Solar solution to power on / off the various cameras.  Upon movement, just upload the camera pictures (using something like IFTTT).  Solutions like Homeboy work well with very little power.
• Another idea is to maybe leverage the telephone wires (since it's always on) for power.  This one requires a bit more thought and planning.