Best anti-theft fasteners for securing a solar panel at ground level?

[NeverDie]

I have a 13" x 21" solar panel on order for a solar garden light project that I'd like to install at close to ground level.  One of the panel's selling points for me was that included in the price it comes with a bracket for mounting the solar panel to a post, as shown in the rendering below:
 

 
Tentatively, I would buy some square tubing and secure it to the ground by putting it in a hole that I would then fill with a bag or two of quikrete.  That way, the pole and panel hopefully won't tip over in heavy wind, and it will also hopefully deter any thieves from pulling the whole assembly out of the ground and making off with it.  So, after cementing the post into the ground, the next vulnerably becomes the fasteners that attach the bracket to the post and to the panel.  I'm wondering what kind of fasteners a thief would be highly unlikely to have drivers for, so that he wouldn't just unscrew the fasteners and make-off with it?  Any experience or opinions on that?

 

[Del91574]

At one of the local colleges, all their readers and exposed hardware have these screws:
 
http://www.losspreventionfasteners.com/store/products/avsafe/
 
Special place in hell for the guys that designed these....combined with a tapered conical nut. Last job I did had something like 170 readers X 2 screws to close the housing X 4 to mount to the box....

 

[drvnbysound]

Here's a question... say someone sees the panel and does want to steal it. They get to the panel and realize you used security screws and don't have the tools to grab it. Do you think they are just going to walk away? Chances are, they're going to smash/damage it at that point. I'm not sure which is better...

 

[pete_c]

Locally a neighbor went to batteries / solar panels (2) for his outdoor LCD lighting.  He just put the panels on one lower roof and passed the wires behind the gutter drain.  I didn't notice the two solar panels (blended a bit with his roof) until he pointed them out to me.  All of this stuff though was on the back of his home though.  He did get a bit fancy DIYing the controller in a PVC box and put a little plastic clear cover over the LEDs to monitor the controller.

 

[NeverDie]

Here's a question... say someone sees the panel and does want to steal it. They get to the panel and realize you used security screws and don't have the tools to grab it. Do you think they are just going to walk away? Chances are, they're going to smash/damage it at that point. I'm not sure which is better...

 
It's possible.  I can't say it couldn't happen.  Speaking broadly, though, the thieves around here rely on stealth and are opportunists.  At most they are skilled de-installers.  Purposefully destroying the solar panel would potentially break their stealth, so it's not in their interest.
 
In the morning a couple years ago a next door neighbor got in his car, which he had parked in his drvieway and locked for the night.  He got his seat belt on and the engine running, and he didn't notice that the radio was missing until he literally reached over to turn it on.  Aside from the missing radio, nothing else was even scratched.  Here, that more or less encapsulates the predominant modus operandi, so that's what I gear towards.

 

[RAL]

No need to destroy the panel.  If the thieves really want to steal it, a battery powered Dremel tool with a cutoff disc will make quick work of any type of security fastener, without damaging the panel.
 
I think as long as you use a fastener that doesn't require a flat blade or Philips head screwdriver, you will foil most of the casual thieves.  I wouldn't go overboard trying to find the most secure type.  It's just too easy to beat any security fastener.

 

[drvnbysound]

What I meant was the purposeful destruction of an item once a theif realizes that you used non-standard screws so they couldn't easily take it... and just damage it out of spite and you have to pony up more money to buy another one.

 

[NeverDie]

It would be ironic if I had to keep my grid connected lights on at night in order to help prevent a measely 20 watt solar panel from being vandalized by a defeated thief.  Maybe I should go for a higher wattage panel and have the panel floodlight itself at night.  The Cree MC-E's can produce 200 lumens of white light per watt.  Too bad three of them would cost more than the solar panel....
 
Better, maybe leave the ordinary screws in and just have the panel scream bloody murder and switch the grid lights go on only when a bad guy starts unhooking it.  Then I wouldn't need a lot of extra battery capacity.  But how to do that? Maybe have a couple ordinary screws that hold down some microswitches, which open when the screw holding them down is backed off?  In that case, standard screws would be an advantage rather than a disadvantage.  I don't know....  That doesn't sound easy to fabricate.  
 
Feel free to throw in some brainstorm ideas.  I've got flexibility.
 
One alternative is wire together a bunch of the usual lousy mini solar panels used for LED garden lights.  I don't think they would be a serious theft target, because by now just about everyone knows how lousy they are.  I actually started with that notion, but then I thought a real solar panel would be a better long-term solution.  Meanwhile, though, I've acquired some clear UV-blocking film, so maybe I could make lousy garden solar cells last longer....  I have 9 new ones  that I'm about to return to the seller, and they cost almost the same as the 20 watt panel.  I doubt their combined output would be more than 5 watts--if that even--but I could measure them more carefully to better estimate.

 

[Del91574]

No need to destroy the panel.  If the thieves really want to steal it, a battery powered Dremel tool with a cutoff disc will make quick work of any type of security fastener, without damaging the panel.
 
I think as long as you use a fastener that doesn't require a flat blade or Philips head screwdriver, you will foil most of the casual thieves.  I wouldn't go overboard trying to find the most secure type.  It's just too easy to beat any security fastener.

A fastener with a spin collar will defeat the dremel, especially if the collar is conical (no vise grips there). Using tamperproof is only as good as you make it, and again, it's not a 100% guarantee it won't get stolen, but the longer it takes, the more noise, the more exposed, the less likely.