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I've always wondered, how does balcony solar work? Are you charging a large battery and using said battery?
That article says you just plug it into an outlet. Is it a special outlet of some kind?
I'm just one of today's lucky 10,000 and want to learn about it.
It's a normal outlet, and the power is limited to 800 watts. Batteries are entirely optional. The energy that gets used gets used, and what's left is fed upstream into the power network. Some people here don't have new energy meters but those old ferraris meters, and they actually may count backwards, so that's nice, too.
It's a regular German outlet, but they would be more comparable to a drier outlet here in the US, although without being rated for such high loads as an american clothes drier.
As another commenter said, They're used to cover the base load of lights, fridge, small electronics. Most all of these systems won't have any battery storage so the power either gets used in the moment by the home, or exported to the utility. That part isnt really any different from a typical solar installation in the US. They're just smaller systems so it's more accessible to lower income people and people that live in apartments.
US utilities often have anti islanding rules, so power is not allowed to be fed back into the utility without specific equipment designed to stop power flowing back when the grid is down.
Is this part of german systems, or is it simplified?
The systems don't output power until they sense a grid connection, and cut power immediately if the grid goes down.
Sounds like they are almost ready to go for most US requirements then. Some voltage tweeks and a plug change and we got something cooking.
That plus changes to laws in most states. Utah is the only place that allows this type of grid tied solar without permits, new meter, etc. Hopefully more states will follow soon
Actually it's quite smart and simple l: you take any outlet in your house!
The ac/dc transformer those things simply feeds it's energy into your house - after all a plug doesn't care in which direction power flows. .those systems have an upper cap though to prevent people from overloading the net.
It's really neat and simple! You basically lower your lower consumption by whatever these things produce.
I don't know or have seen anyone using these small balcony cells with a battery though - while technically not a problem I think there's simply not a use case: they don't overproduce that much at any given time anyway.
The pv panel just provides the electricity to your house. Essentially, if it provides electricity, your devices use that before using the grid. If it provides excess electricity beyond what you use, it feeds back into the grid. There's nothing to it, just plug it in. Just remember that if you disconnect a circuit to work on it, you may also have to disconnect your panels because the wires may still be "hot" (they shouldn't because the PV usually stops providing electricity once it loses the grid frequency, but better safe than sorry).
Why not in the US?
Because it's illegal in 49 out of 50 states (legal in Utah as April) AND there aren't any units available for sale with 120v output (and the required auto shutoff when the grid is down)
Most of the German people I've asked say it doesn't make sense to have a battery storage, but they also live in small apartments with little outdoor space for multiple solar panels. Theoretically, if there is enough space for panels a battery backup could keep supplying the max wattage (800w Germany, 1000w Utah) throughout the night
The US where they wanna drill, baby, drill?
I know the hogs are making us look so bad that we might never recover; but please keep in mind that we don’t fucking ALL want that. I’d be willing to bet not even a majority.
We are, however, asleep at the wheel, held hostage by our financial and employment situation, or both
Not even the oil companies want that. They were given permission do so and said "nah". Too much supply lowers their profits. It was all bluster
The only sun the Americans believe in is Jesus
How is the balcony solar pv energy being used exactly? Do people have DC chargers for laptops?
Uh, you are aware that your laptop charger is providing DC right?
Im setting this up right now on my balcony, which will make me the third apartment in my building to install a system like this.
All you need is some standard solar panels (they all use the same connectors so you can mix between brands often) and an inverter box.
I got three used panels for 10€ a piece a few months ago which i will slap on the outside of the balcony.
This 800W grid synchronizing inverter can be had for 100€ currently and even has two MPPT trackers for separate panel strings (for when not all panels are oriented in the same direction).
This is what the end result typically looks like:
These setups come with a fitting transformer and you feed their generated power directly in your home power lines via normal plug. It's quite neat actually in my opinion!
how does this affect the meter from the electricity grid company?
Depends on the type of meter, some measure the power delivered to the grid seperately, older meters just run backwards.
Neat
To summarize for anyone not reading the article:
German balcony solar panels are connected directly to their home power through a smart inverter that will kill power if the grid power goes down, so lines don't stay live when you'd think they are dead. Those devices are designed for the voltage and frequency of the German grid, and can't be used in America. Companies won't makes devices if they aren't legal to use, but one state has legalized it, so hopefully we get there soon.
The other issue is that a circuit breaker essentially monitors the amount of current going into your home's circuit from the grid as a way of preventing your wires from being overloaded. Since the micro inverter is on the other side of the circuit breaker, you could overload the circuit without tripping the breaker, and that is why they are limited to 800 W.
Funny, I am on a plane preparing to fly out of Munich as I type this, and in the 5 days I've been in Germany I haven't seen anything I could recognize as a balcony solar panel.
Then you were really unlucky. While I don't have one myself, I see them a lot in Germany in all kinds of cities and also villages.
There are several dozen on my block alone in Munich. Including the one on my house.