New bill would let New Yorkers hang solar panels from windows

The zip ties are metal zip ties. Those won't fall off because of UV. Panel is hanging inside the balcony. If it falls, it will fall into the balcony - it's bigger then the rails and ground is solid. It's not running behind the glass, the glass looks taken off. I can't be 100% sure, but it seems so. You can't see how the power cable is pushed into the home, so that's pure speculation.

The picture looks like taken mid-installation, some metal ties aren't even fastened.

The balcony appears to have full coverage on the railing - there isn't a gap at the bottom for anything to fall out through. The metal frame makes it looks like there is at first glance, but look at the seam on the glass - it continues further down than that bottom crossbar.

This might fall over into the balcony some day and break but it shouldn't really be a hazard to anyone else.

Beyond this, the reality is that plenty of the other balconies likely have string lights or other electronic items plugged in 24/7 and with their connectors sitting on the ground on the balcony. Same with having a bunch of unsecured/poorly items that could theoretically get tossed off it by an extreme storm. Not ideal, but I don't see why we should be acting like this is much different from everything else in that sense.

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Now speaking more generally:

- Cities should have reasonable regulations (and likely, already do) about securing anything being positioned where it could fall off and hit someone, particularly over a sidewalk or public space. (As mentioned, I don't think this one is a major hazard upon taking a second glance).

- Balcony solar kits should probably at least ship with some safety cabling and have integrated mount points for those cables that are sturdy enough to withstand wind + drop shocks.

- My concerns in the US/North America are more around how we handle the much lower ratings of our typical residential circuits, it's easier for a consumer to overload a circuit here with something like this than in Europe.

- If we're not requiring a dedicated circuit/single-outlet circuit for it seems difficult to maintain safety unless we're capping the maximum power per system quite low. And if we are requiring a dedicated circuit for it/an electrician to approve it we're greatly limiting who will ever be able to install these.

Overall though, I'm still positive on the concept and don't want to see it buried in regulatory hell, especially with how well adoption has apparently gone elsewhere.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-04-07/germany-p...

Germany has to invest more in smart electric meters, which could project negative electricity prices to individual households.

And more investments in energy storage systems. (Even through I think that lithium batteries would better help decarbonization in EVs than in electric grid storage systems).

I did really rough math and a hypothetical 200W panel getting 100% sun for 5 hours per day (1 kW/hr) would net you a whopping ~$9.30 in savings per month. We're paying something like $0.31 per kW/hr in NYC and it's a lot of money right now.

For a 800W setup, 4–5 kWh on a very good summer day is plausible. Over a full year, it's going to be something like 600–900 kWh depending on orientation, shading, and location. So in strong summer months you might get something like 80–120 kWh. But you won't be able to use all of that unless you have a battery.

However, A typical apartment in Germany is not using that much electricity. Roughly speaking, a one-person place might use around 160 kWh a month and a two-person place around 270 kWh. Finding a use for 20–30 kWh a month during sunny periods. That's how you get to 10%. 25% might be harder but doable if you could somehow have a battery soak up the excess power. I don't think there are a lot of plug and play solutions for that yet. But it should not be that hard to do technically.

Power in Germany is relatively expensive 160*0.40 is about 80/month for me. I pay a bit less than that because I use less power somehow. But still, that's is close to 1000 euro per year. Saving 100 per year means the whole setup would earn itself back in 2-4 years (most plug and play setups you find on amazon are between 200 and 400 euro). And depending on where you live you can actually get some of that back via subsidy. But it basically pays for itself even if you don't. Unless like me your balcony faces east and you only get a few hours of sunlight in the morning.

I don't understand. These systems just plug into wall outlets. The big difference is that, instead of saving yourself money, you'd be saving your landlady money on the bill.

Solar systems are well understood, as is the business of connecting them to existing power. Magic boxes exist to handle exactly this problem. Connecting them up isn't hard, but installations usually require professional certification to stop people frying themselves and/or their wiring.

DIY solar makes no sense if you're paying your building for unmetered power.

Generally apartment solar can be a nice optional accessory, but very few apartments have the space for a system capable of powering the entire apartment for a significant part of the year.

This may be because the FCC has pretty strict rules that require apartment buildings to permit dishes and antennas on personal areas like balconies.

Lack of similar laws for solar panels means that most landlords are going to just say "no" rather than take the risk.

An inverter.

> management would have no way of regulating or maintaining such a bizarre setup

What kind of regulation is needed? What about this is bizarre? If you’re concerned that these systems might be a fire hazard, that’s already a problem (space heaters, heating blankets, hot plates, etc). If you’re concerned that these systems won’t play nicely on a shared AC line, that’s already a problem (e.g., motors). I don’t see anything “bizarre” here.

The balcony solar setups are sized to be small enough that they can be fed into standard systems.

There’s no “chaos”. It just offsets consumption a little bit. New electric meters have been able to account for or at least not get confused by reverse flow should it occur at the small levels that balcony solar setups might produce.

If anything you should be building a nice home Nvidia AI cluster to take advantage of that free power.

FTFY.

It’s same same with any change or improvement. Head firmly buried in sand.

But I think plug-in / balcony solar will be pretty cool. And I think there's a path to inexpensive, larger, safer grid-tie inverters which never backfeed, but prioritize solar input first and make up the difference with grid power.

For example, I'm imagining a box that would plug in to the wall, have a DC input from solar panels, and a power strip for loads supporting up to, ideally, a full 15A normal US 120V circuit.

Currently this box exists in the form of battery power station units (Bluetti, Ecoflow, Anker etc). But I think there could be a much less expensive form that could exist without the battery.

I've ranted endlessly about the outsized impact people with no expertise but a large audience have had on society. So so many people have the worldview shaped by individuals that cannot even bother to learn basics like watts and watt-hours for their "reporting".

This whole paragraph is nonsense. A 2,000 watt panel is never going to go on a balcony (because it is huge for any residential balcony), and regardless of "capacity" a solar panel is not going to power a window AC unit without an intermediate storage, unless you want the compressor to shut down every time a cloud passes by.

And people complain about writing being AI generated. Is this kind of sloppy writing any better?

1. These grid tie inverters are designed and tested to shut off completely if there's no grid power. (This is a big design tradeoff: it means they don't provide any power during a grid power outage, even if it's very sunny out.)

2. Even if I had a beefy generator that was unsafely backfeeding my house while the utility power was still connected, the generator would be trying to power not just my house, but all my neighbors too! And the circuit breaker and/or inverter on the generator would likely trip and shut down almost instantly.

There's still a possible risk from #2, especially if the downed wire being repaired is relatively local (i.e. your house only).

But I think #1 and #2 mitigate this risk very well.