Welcome!
I’m not going near this ‘When storms come, and it gets hard’… 
However, if I read your post correctly, you are looking to detect outdoor light levels. While this device does not deliver ‘proper’ LX reading, I have found it to be very reliably and performant. I’ve mapped it’s output to LX by doing a compare to a real lumens meter. It is an outdoor device (however works fine inside too) , mains powered. If that works for you and you can place it where it gets good ‘view’ of sun changes it might be something to consider. As a plus, it works great for outdoor holiday lights , and to boot you get a ESPHome BLE ‘extender’.
Good hunting!
Wyze Power Monitoring Outdoor Plug (WLPPO1)