Balcony Solar: $1.74/watt direct plug-in solar
brightsaver.org
brightsaver.org
This is an ad for a poor deal and I think some are upvoting before they click. I hope nobody buys it before doing some comparison shopping.
> "They just banned all chinese inverters"
They don't go into details, but check out the Aurora Generator Test: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_Generator_Test Running solar inverters in opposite phase to the grid would likely not immediately damage them, instead they would draw the amount of power they'd normally provide. In some parts of the US, especially during peak summer demand, even a small percentage of solar power doing this could cause a cascading outage, knocking entire multi-state power grids offline. (See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_2003)
Granted, this could still happen with compromised US-produced inverters, but it's something we should be paying close attention to and planning around.
Most people in the US don't know that things like this even exist, so it's novel, new, and interesting.
Our media environment and politics have kept us away from broad understanding of current technology and possibilities. The US also has Stockholm-syndrome levels of subservience to HOAs, too, for example. When it comes to clean energy, regulation is assumed to be impossible to change, as is the grid. (But when it comes to energy for data centers, all regulations can be changed, and boy will the grid undergo changes, all billed back to residential ratepayers...)
It's hard to overstate just how bad the US is when it comes to the random person understanding hot-button Fox news topics like EVs and solar and wind and batteries.
Don’t submit an admit for a product that comes with a subscription.
HN is filled with commercial sales pitches, and even encourages self-promotion.
I can't be certain why this one type of product suddenly gets people saying "no ads," but I have my suspicions.
Exactly how would you know that?
it wasn't flagged because of some nefarious plan to suppress people from knowing about this, it was flagged because it's marketing bullshit. There's lots of really good material out there about DIY solar and this isn't it.
Household wiring actually has 2 separate 120V supply lines, out of phase with each other (This is how you can get 240V outlets (ovens, driers)). The 120V lines connect to only one of these two lines, and which one it connects to is determined by what slot the breaker is plugged into at the breaker box.
I miss how fast our German kettle heated water :-(
"We pass the savings onto you! [Just pay $29/year membership fee!]"
(Seriously, though. 180W? That's not a ton of "help" for a typical refrigerator that draws anywhere between 300 and 800W.)
(Also, seriously, though. Most apartment owners and condo HOAs won't allow their residents to put these on their balconies.)
These types of devices are fairly popular in Germany, and maybe other places. For someone like me, with very high peak daytime prices, even a small offset would be valuable, but the full price here seems to be $500, which is too much. No reason it couldn't be much cheaper, though.
Call it 1.5kwh for the entire day being optimistic. This would save me (inclusive of taxes, etc.) roughly $.33/day. Call it $10/mo.
34mo so payback isn't the worst I suppose. Better than I expected to be honest. Probably not worth the hassle factor though since I don't have an ideal place to put such a thing.
I do have an "always on" load of well over 200W in my home, so at least it would offset every watt it generated. I'm not sure how true that is for most folks, as most folks don't run a home lab in their basement.
I know I can't justify spending $3k upfront to only offset $25/month at best. I'd rather just turn off a few lights and stop paying for Netflix.
It seems like a large cost for not a lot of power offset that's also unusable when the power goes out (since you can't run untied from the grid).
For example, Utah, which was a balcony solar pioneer:
https://hub.utahcleanenergy.org/solar-power/for-policy-maker...
That claim is too vague to evaluate.
> For example, Utah, which was a balcony solar pioneer: [link omitted]
The referenced Utah legislation (SB154) does not prevent HOAs from banning balcony solar installations. It restricts only certain bans on rooftop solar installations on detached dwellings. It's important to read the fine print.
The other legislation applies to restrictive deed covenants for new or renewed plats, not lease agreements. Even if they can't prevent condo owners from putting solar panels on their balcony, it doesn't prevent apartment owners from disallowing tenants from doing it. (Utah might have a different law covering that, I don't know.)
I think we're up to 8 states now?
It seems like the site ought to provide more clarity around that, though.
Could I move the outdoor one to a separate breaker? Or would that require rewiring everything?
What was your experience if so?
It was stupidly simple. I laid four giant ~700 W panels flat on my upstairs patio, plugged the MC4 extension cables into the microinverters, and plugged the microinverter into a normal AC extension cord running to a wall outlet. After less than 10 minutes of fiddling with wires, I was generating power.
Moving the giant solar panels was the part that actually took some effort.
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I’ve been following these types of systems for a long time, since before people started calling them plug-in or balcony solar. For the longest time, I thought they were just stupid. Paying a premium for an inverter that has lower input and output capacity than a string inverter, can’t be connected to batteries, and can’t generate power when the grid is down seemed obscene to me.
To be honest, I still think they’re kind of dumb. Why can’t microinverters provide a DC tap so that I can also connect them to a battery system?
All that said, as a middle-aged man who has now had to deal with electricians more than a few times, the appeal has become crystal clear. Microinverters basically exist because electricians as a whole are downright awful and rip everyone off.