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this post was submitted on 11 Feb 2025
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i mean, it'll work. You should probably just collectively work together to install a solar array on the roof of the apartment instead, assuming it doesn't already have one.
Granted this is in the EU, so ideal solar tracking is kinda just, fucked. It matters more closer to the equator, because you can get significantly more power from pointing them correctly, and tracking, if you decide to use that.
Rooftop solar has a huge upfront cost and requires the building owner/operator do it. It’s out of the control of individuals and out of their price range.
Balcony solar is completely under your control, within most people’s budget, and you simply plug it in
While tracking might let you collect more energy, you also lose more of your balcony, and you’re back to making the install expensive and complicated. Not worth it
yeah and uh, idk if you noticed, generally more than one person lives in an apartment building, it's about as good as it's going to get unless you're installing solar from tax payer money, or utility company money.
dont use tracking on a balcony??? Also not all tracking setups are expensive and complicated, the entire reason you would want to do them is to greatly increase the total amount of power production throughout the day, and you can very easily calculate the complexity cost, maintenance cost, and additional install cost over to the potential saved/produced value of the array post installation.
I mean if you're doing 2 axis tracking, sure it's probably more expensive, but one axis tracking is still reasonably effective, especially if you're in a decent spot and able to take advantage of it. The other option is installing more panels total, and when you're space limited, that's going to become a constraint.
Why are you cooking for yourself at home? It would be more efficient, if you organize a shared kitchen in the house and each evening a different party cooks for everyone in the house.
in an apartment specifically? Why would you build your own house when you can build a large building and then live in segmented housing blocks within that building?
It's literally just breaking the entire idea of apartment block housing for the purposes of providing less usable, less functional solar power. If you want to do your own install on top of an existing install on the apartment, go ahead, nobody is going to stop you, but you would see more returns if you managed to install solar directly on the roof of the building in the first place. Economy of scale is going to be advantageous for you in literally any case, that's just the truth.
Hell yeah. I do Thursdays and man people remember to come to me on Thursday.
any form of collective project requires organization, which conveniently is not required for an individual project that can be as impulsive and unsafe as the individual wants.
that is true, but it's pretty common for apartment blocks to have some sort of management and front of house staff, so it's not impossible. Even easier to deal with if you're in some sort of co op situation.
Balcony solar is not unsafe though. At least it is not more unsafe than say putting a plant pot on your balcony, or operating power appliances like fridges, stoves, washing machines...
the electricity can be unsafe, such as if you just teist wires together and don't bother covering them.