Who on fedi has adopted balcony solar?
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@Nichelle Waiting for Illinois. There was some push to keep this from coming out of committee in 2026, hoping for 2027...
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Who on fedi has adopted balcony solar? Since Colorado has paved the way, we are considering it. I would love to hear about people's actual experiences, how much power they have been able to harvest, any issues, one panel vs. two panels, etc.
Please boost for reach.
Nothing super formal here. I bought a Jackery battery/panel combo that was on sale earlier this year for emergency backup power, but I decided to leave it deployed most of the time and use it occasionally for charging devices or running small appliances like vacuum cleaners. I've already paid for it, so I might as well use it.
I haven't gone so far as to plug it directly into my house's mains. I don't have the equipment for it, and I still have residual concern about lineworker safety. For now, occasionally using the battery unit's built-in USB and inverter outlets are fine enough for me.
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Who on fedi has adopted balcony solar? Since Colorado has paved the way, we are considering it. I would love to hear about people's actual experiences, how much power they have been able to harvest, any issues, one panel vs. two panels, etc.
Please boost for reach.
@Nichelle i'm in Colorado and have been doing this "pre-legally" for a while but only on a very small scale to fill up my jackery generator to power my ebike with a 100w solar panel. i am now looking very much into expanding, so i eagerly await seeing more responses on this!
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Who on fedi has adopted balcony solar? Since Colorado has paved the way, we are considering it. I would love to hear about people's actual experiences, how much power they have been able to harvest, any issues, one panel vs. two panels, etc.
Please boost for reach.
@Nichelle Munich, Germany. Installed a 400W panel on the south balcony, with a micro inverter plugged in to an outlet, 2 years ago. Reduces my electricity bill by around 15-20% at a total cost below €400. Thinking of adding a second panel.
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Who on fedi has adopted balcony solar? Since Colorado has paved the way, we are considering it. I would love to hear about people's actual experiences, how much power they have been able to harvest, any issues, one panel vs. two panels, etc.
Please boost for reach.
@Nichelle
During 2023, electricity was very unreliable in Cape Town, South Africa. We bought an EcoFlow Delta Pro and a pair of solar panels. I "installed" the solar panels by laying them flat on top of the breezeway between our kitchen and garage. We left our refrigerator plugged into the EcoFlow all the time, and so we never lost the contents of our fridge. The EcoFlow was not connected in any way to the electrical panel of our house, though. -
Who on fedi has adopted balcony solar? Since Colorado has paved the way, we are considering it. I would love to hear about people's actual experiences, how much power they have been able to harvest, any issues, one panel vs. two panels, etc.
Please boost for reach.
@Nichelle @blogdiva I've got one 200W portable panel set out on the ground near-vertical (south facing) in north Idaho and in the summer it's more than enough to charge all my devices (laptop, phone, iPad, Steamdeck) and still at 89% this morning after a rainy 24 hours.
I haven't expanded it to include AC devices yet (involving longer cables and cutting a hole in the RV), which will draw more power and use the inverter which is less efficient. (Currently I just have USB cables running from the generator/battery outside through the window. It has a bunch of all the kinds of standard outlets, so I didn't have to patch into my electrical.)
I've got two more panels (total 600W) and am looking into a more permanent installation on an outbuilding roof across the driveway.
Battery (2400W I think?) and panels are Ampace brand. The cables to the panels are standard and interchangeable.
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@Nichelle If you have a roof it can't hurt to get a few quotes. It was much more affordable than I expected after incentives and credits and it generates a much higher percentage of my consumption than balcony can.
@andrew773 I live in a condo so I don't have control of my roof or surrounding spaces. But I do have control of my balcony, which is on a corner with north and west exposure. Not ideal for solar I know, but the west end gets lots of afternoon sun, so we would like to harvest it if we can.
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@andrew773 I live in a condo so I don't have control of my roof or surrounding spaces. But I do have control of my balcony, which is on a corner with north and west exposure. Not ideal for solar I know, but the west end gets lots of afternoon sun, so we would like to harvest it if we can.
@Nichelle In that case even if grid tied balcony solar is not available where you are you might be able to find an off grid solution which will feed directly into a battery inverter combo. I do not own this product but to get an idea of what I'm saying - https://www.ankersolix.com/products/c2000-gen2?variant=53152183353674&ref=SolarGenerator4&selected=c2000-gen2-400w-solar-panel. Good luck finding something that works for you!
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Who on fedi has adopted balcony solar? Since Colorado has paved the way, we are considering it. I would love to hear about people's actual experiences, how much power they have been able to harvest, any issues, one panel vs. two panels, etc.
Please boost for reach.
I'm planning to, but @balkonsolar can share a lot for sure.
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Who on fedi has adopted balcony solar? Since Colorado has paved the way, we are considering it. I would love to hear about people's actual experiences, how much power they have been able to harvest, any issues, one panel vs. two panels, etc.
Please boost for reach.
@Nichelle I now have whole-house solar and before that I set up an off-grid power station with 200 watts of panels. I still have and use the off-grid panels and power station, but the amount of power it generates over the course of a year is truly minuscule compared to the needs of a whole house. 200 watts of panels will get you about 1kwh/day in good conditions. On average over the year, factoring in cloudy days and winter conditions, it's closer to .4 kwh/day. And then when you're talking about a power station scenario, your round-trip efficiency through a battery is optimistically 80%.
I lay out all those numbers, because it matters a lot for what you intend to use it for. It's kind of obvious, but maximizing solar panel wattage (total area), placement, and angle is HUGE. The If you're going to go small, it only makes sense if you need it for emergency power. Ultimately, for my setup, the ROI was 10+ years, which I suspect is true for most small solar + battery setups. For cost saving, a grid-connected setup makes way more sense, especially if you have a net-metering balcony solar program available.
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Who on fedi has adopted balcony solar? Since Colorado has paved the way, we are considering it. I would love to hear about people's actual experiences, how much power they have been able to harvest, any issues, one panel vs. two panels, etc.
Please boost for reach.
@Nichelle living close to Berlin/ Germany. We have installed two panels with combined 950 Wp facing south and a 2 kWh battery/ inverter since some weeks. Reduces electricity consumption by 65% during summer (2 people, working mostly from home). I think it will have paid itself in 3-4 years. Big bonus: in case of blackouts, we have at least emergency electricity. Probably will add another bifacial panel for mornings/ evenings and maybe more battery capacity.
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Who on fedi has adopted balcony solar? Since Colorado has paved the way, we are considering it. I would love to hear about people's actual experiences, how much power they have been able to harvest, any issues, one panel vs. two panels, etc.
Please boost for reach.
@Nichelle Just posted about it a few days ago:
https://ohai.social/@bigz/117072542575907648With two panels I’ll save about 250$ p.a. Investment of 400$ for the core system and 400$ for a smart battery. Located in Germany, latitude of northern Michigan.
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Who on fedi has adopted balcony solar? Since Colorado has paved the way, we are considering it. I would love to hear about people's actual experiences, how much power they have been able to harvest, any issues, one panel vs. two panels, etc.
Please boost for reach.
After calculating the amount of power I can use during sun hours I dropped balcony solar, the utility company would have profited far more from my investment than I could.
Now using non mains connected portable solar, I started with one unit, added two extra batterys, with 4 500 watt panels I harvest more energy than I can use most days and evenings/nights..
Exception was Part of December January to March where I got almost no benefit.
I have cut my bills by about 65%.
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@Nichelle I now have whole-house solar and before that I set up an off-grid power station with 200 watts of panels. I still have and use the off-grid panels and power station, but the amount of power it generates over the course of a year is truly minuscule compared to the needs of a whole house. 200 watts of panels will get you about 1kwh/day in good conditions. On average over the year, factoring in cloudy days and winter conditions, it's closer to .4 kwh/day. And then when you're talking about a power station scenario, your round-trip efficiency through a battery is optimistically 80%.
I lay out all those numbers, because it matters a lot for what you intend to use it for. It's kind of obvious, but maximizing solar panel wattage (total area), placement, and angle is HUGE. The If you're going to go small, it only makes sense if you need it for emergency power. Ultimately, for my setup, the ROI was 10+ years, which I suspect is true for most small solar + battery setups. For cost saving, a grid-connected setup makes way more sense, especially if you have a net-metering balcony solar program available.
@tehfishman Thanks for the numbers! We are connected to the grid, so will probably be using netmetering. I work from home, so am using power/running the A/C exactly when the sun is fiercest. The balcony isn't located ideally for solar (north and west exposure), and the panel will have to be mounted vertically (on the railing), but we hope to make a dent in the electric bill. We have been looking at BrightSaver for wholesale prices.
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Who on fedi has adopted balcony solar? Since Colorado has paved the way, we are considering it. I would love to hear about people's actual experiences, how much power they have been able to harvest, any issues, one panel vs. two panels, etc.
Please boost for reach.
@Nichelle had balcony solar since 2020: it's a piece of sand, a microinverter, and a plug in the wall.
Produces 600W peak, saves plenty of electricity.
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@Nichelle had balcony solar since 2020: it's a piece of sand, a microinverter, and a plug in the wall.
Produces 600W peak, saves plenty of electricity.
@ocramius Can you explain more?
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@ToweroftheArchmage @chgowiz @Nichelle Waiting for it here in CA too with fingers crossed that it happens.
I have off-grid solar (300W and three 100AH batteries and more) but those aren't in regular use as 'balcony solar" would be.
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Who on fedi has adopted balcony solar? Since Colorado has paved the way, we are considering it. I would love to hear about people's actual experiences, how much power they have been able to harvest, any issues, one panel vs. two panels, etc.
Please boost for reach.
Running in Germany since 2019.
Upgraded from two to four panels (& DC storage) last year without changing the meter.Was worth it then & prices have crumbled since.
Only red tape restricts it.https://burningbecks.wordpress.com/2020/09/13/zaehlerbremse/
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Who on fedi has adopted balcony solar? Since Colorado has paved the way, we are considering it. I would love to hear about people's actual experiences, how much power they have been able to harvest, any issues, one panel vs. two panels, etc.
Please boost for reach.
@Nichelle
Got 2 modules in direction SE and SW. Baught also a 48V battery (20 kWh) and a controller, which regulates to zero grid usage and handles modules , bat and inverter.
Yearly grid energy changed from 800 kWh to 300 kWh.
In winter loading bat at weekend with cheap energy (have variable price) and runing all high power devices parallel . In summer harvesting over week and running high power devices serial. -
@ToweroftheArchmage @chgowiz @Nichelle Waiting for it here in CA too with fingers crossed that it happens.
I have off-grid solar (300W and three 100AH batteries and more) but those aren't in regular use as 'balcony solar" would be.
@croyle @ToweroftheArchmage @chgowiz @Nichelle
Wait, what... In the land of ultimate freedom you can't even put a solar panel on your house?
