HOAs and Condo rules and shit.
I wonder if you add an antenna and a small radio tower if OTARD would keep you protected? Gotta get power to it, so solar would make sense... hell, even a tv antenna with a booster would need power.
Affording a balcony might be step one though.
I wanted an apartment with a balcony but they're all $500+ more a month in rent then I'm already paying.
Tl;dr: Because we haven't created a safety standard for it.
The lack of an Underwriters Laboratories (UL) standard is perhaps the biggest obstacle to the adoption of balcony solar. The company certifies the safety of thousands of household electrical products; according to Iowa State University, “every light bulb, lamp, or outlet purchased in the US usually has a UL symbol and says UL Listed.” This assures customers that the product follows nationally recognized guidelines and can be used without the risk of a fire or shock.
Safety standards? Sounds like anti-profit standards! Guess who DOGE is cutting next!
Oh, America? The one still clinging to 110V (thus more current) and in some cases using aluminum wires? The one where safety standards are for wussies? Yeah I wonder why.
Except that we have 240v?
Why do people overseas keep getting this wrong?
In the USA, by and large, homes are supplied with 240v with a neutral in the middle. So each phase is 120v. And we can access 240 by simply going across both phases. Literally every house I've ever been in my whole life has had 240v to the panel, including ones built before anyone on Lemmy was born.
The only places this isn't true was a couple of large apartment complex I lived in for few years where it was 360 to the complex 208 to the unit and 115v on each phase.
If you took out the neutral, we'd have 240 exactly like Europe. In theory (definitely not within code), on 90+% of houses in the USA, you could just wire the neutral to the opposite phase as live that the circuit is already on and get the full 240v to every outlet in the house (DO NOT FUCKING DO THIS). Each phase that we have only exists in the context of the neutral, and the neutral is strictly optional(though common) in the context of things like high draw devices.
As far as your aluminum comment... First, why aren't you saying "aluminium" if you're not (seemingly) American? But you realize that aluminum works perfectly fine for power delivery right? The EU uses aluminum in places too...
“Europe's energy transition is about one thing, more renewable power production, and the power produced must be transported over long distances. Aluminium is crucial for transporting electricity to where it is needed. By expanding the capacity to deliver low-carbon aluminium from Norway to the EU, we help ensure that the infrastructure, the very backbone of the future energy system, supports both Europe's security and climate policy goals," says Kallevik.
Edit: LMAO downvoted for actual facts. Here you go mr aussie.zone user that also clearly doesn't understand the USA electrical system, https://youtu.be/jMmUoZh3Hq4
American electrical systems are split phase 240V. If you want 240V, you just connect between both halves of the phase.
America has a lot of stupid, but the majority our electrical systems are very much NOT one of them.
I mean, your outlets definitely are, compared to what we have as a standard.
I will take Technology Connections' opinion on it over yours, but yes having two pin outlets where if you start plugging it in the live connection is exposed during the process is very much stupid
He did day that about our plugs a lot. Maybe you would you like a link to the technology connections video saying basically exactly what @chronicledmonocle@lemmy.world said about our split phase 120/240 setup then?
Neither 110VAC or 240VAC is inherently more dangerous as long as the system is paired with the right gauge of wire. As for personal safety, both are more than capable of killing you regardless of amperage. 240VAC may even be a little more capable because it can push more current through the resistance of your body.
I’ll admit, American plugs/outlets leave a lot to be desired, but it’s not any more dangerous because of the higher current.
Yeah I mean, there are ish 130 million households in the US. If your way of doing up wiring was so bad, you'd have fires everywhere all the time.
It's just a different way of doing it. Not better or worse, inherently.
The only thing I thoroughly dislike that you guys do are wire nuts. I know I will piss of some American sparkies, but holy fudge they are crappy. When even the professionals can mess it up by twisting poorly/wrong, it's bound to cause issues for less experienced people. Just use WAGO's.
#SorryNotSorry!!
Oh, to be in Europe right now.
Visa marriages! I think here in Sweden at least it's not super difficult to get permanent residency via cohabitation, and cohabitation doesn't even require any particular paperwork. Granted, it's been a while since I looked into it, and with a government that's all chummy with the alt-right our immigration rules have gotten tighter, so things might've changed.
I'm hoping with the massive anti-US sentiment going right now, that the next government won't be right wing.
It's gotten significantly worse in basically every regard here in Sweden with regards to immigration, unfortunately.
Yay for Neo-Nazis in government. :(
"I don't want no woke commie energy"
Micro solar is doable for anyone with yard space though. Forget the grid and buy some battery storage, put all the electronics into a small shed (like a garbage can box or something, an enclosure to keep out rain). Put up panels anywhere you want. Run the inverter output into your house.
Got a friend with a cabin, and instead of a whole grid they found it simpler to plug their secondhand panels into a battery pack about the size of a car battery that has 110v, 12v, and USB outlets. They charge on the panels at home and it lasts the weekend at the cabin.
I just took portable ones and ziptied them to my balcony connected to a solar generator. Works to feed all my electronics and server equipment. It only connects to the grid if its depleted, never feeds power back in.
So you can still do this in the states, so long as you're not feeding into the grid.
I've never heard of balcony solar panels, much less ones you plug right into an outlet? Asked my German roomie and he's got no clue either.
How does plugging a power source into an outlet work? I'm no electrician, so that sounds bananas to me.
It detects a voltage connected to the plug and starts feeding with slightly higher voltage, done.
These are really common in Germany, even being sold as sets at supermarkets occasionally.
As long as you have one of the old Ferraris style meters, it just runs backwards, these usually pay for themselves in about three years on a sunny balcony that way.
Huh, the wiring just supports power spontaneously coming from an exit point rather than an entry? Is that commonplace?
Either way, that's fascinating! Thanks for taking the time to enlighten me!
Huh, the wiring just supports power spontaneously coming from an exit point rather than an entry? Is that commonplace?
Why wouldn't it? Electrical wiring isn't a one way road, electricity (this is an extreme oversimplification, especially when it comes to AC) will always flow from points of high voltage to points of lower voltage. That's how solar inverters feed into the grid. Raise their voltage a tad bit higher than the grid and match the frequency and phase of the grid until the outflow matches their maximum available power.
Is that commonplace?
That is a hard question, because this isn't a feature, it's how things are. Only thing one needs to take care of is that the solar inverter doesn't deliver so much power that the circuit can consume beyond the circuit breakers capacity, otherwise the breaker would be rendered useless. That's why these small plug inverters are limited to 800W in Germany, that puts the entire possible load on a 16A circuit into the general upper limit that is still within the safety margin fro 16A circuits.
EDIT: Now before someone gets the bright idea to connect their diesel generator to the grid this way: Don't. It will not be in sync or phase and that will make something spectacular happen, but it will not supply the grid. Either have an expensive generator that is able to sync to the grid or have a grid disconnect and switchover in front of your generator plugin socket.
EDITEDIT: Also please never connect an island capable solar inverter to a plug. The ones described above are safe that way, because they wait for grid voltage to be available before they do anything, so there will never be high voltage on the open plug. An island capable solar inverter does by definition not do that. There will be high voltage on the plug and it will kill you and it will hurt like a fucker the entire time you're dying.
My parents recently bought a couple and put them on the shed, you plug it in and magically, it feeds electricity into your home power network. No idea how bit it definitely works!
without reading the article I will guess... HOA regulations. How'd I do?
Not so good - issue is that your "code" for electrical installations doesn't include balcony solar and that your institutions are not able to include it because of reasons that do not make sense to anyone outside the USA
With the current FAA problems, do y’all really want more things taking off?
Honestly I'm surprised a republican is pushing for solar energy.
Also, I'm not sure how much those in the article cost, but the kind you bolt down to a roof can easily cost you into the thousands, so it takes a while for them to pay for themselves, which isn't something everybody's going to be okay with.
In countries like Germany, balcony-mounted solar panels are all the rage.
First image is of an overcast sky with a guy with two nearly-vertical solar panels
Third image is of a small solar panel under a roof receiving a little bit of light at an extreme angle through an opening in a covered attic balcony
Here's a solar farm in the US:
https://www.energy-storage.news/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/de-shaw-1024x731.jpg
It's pulling a lot more power per panel.
Another:
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ipd/images/project_profiles/img_az_navajo_nation_kayenta_solar_program.jpg
Another:
Does it make sense to stick solar panels on a house relative to drawing power from a solar farm? Sure, it can, if your house is remote and it's costly to connect it to the grid, or if what you're after is a secondary, backup source of power if you lose grid connectivity.
But if what you want is cost-effective generation, it's preferable to stick a panel on a solar farm somewhere where one can leverage economies of scale, maintenance is easy and done by someone who maintains a ton of these on a regular basis, and where you're optimizing location and panel orientation for solar potential.
Like, if you want more solar power on the European grid, you probably want more solar farms in Spain, which has substantially more solar potential than Germany:
https://globalsolaratlas.info/
Not someone sticking them on their balcony in Germany.
What Germany could do to help solar and wind, if it wants to do so, is drop complaints about building (inexpensive) above-ground transmission pylons, which would help smooth out different generation at different locations on the European grid.
Farmers and grid operators demand end to rules prioritising underground power lines in Germany
The Federal Requirement Plan Act (Bundesbedarfsplangesetzes), which provides a legal framework for the construction of the high-voltage transmission lines needed to reshape the power grid as ever-more of Germany’s power supply comes from renewables, prioritises underground cables over the construction of visible pylons, which have been met with public resistance.
“So far, we are assuming that all projects will be realised as underground cables,” a BNetzA spokesperson told the paper.
EDIT: If you want to criticize the US for something as solar goes, it'd probably be Trump throwing tariffs on everything, which makes it more costly to deploy solar panels and other electrical hardware manufactured abroad.
I think you're comparing apples to oranges.
The main selling point for a "Balkonkraftwerk" is that it's cheap and doesn't require an electrician to install.
That way they pay off rather quickly and result in a lower electricity bill when you look at a span of 10-15 Years.
Solar farms in Spain on the other hand require massive investments in Infrastructure and the farms themselves. Not to say they're a bad idea, but it's a very different thing.
That way they pay off rather quickly and result in a lower electricity bill when you look at a span of 10-15 Years.
In the US, a lot of problems have arisen around residential solar installation companies providing loans using questionable, if not outright fraudulent sales tactics based around misrepresenting returns.
https://time.com/6565415/rooftop-solar-industry-collapse/
The Rooftop Solar Industry Could Be on the Verge of Collapse
A decade ago, someone knocking on your door to sell you solar panels would have been selling you solar panels. Now, they are probably selling you a financial product—likely a lease or a loan.
Mary Ann Jones, 83, didn’t realize this had happened to her until she received a call last year from GoodLeap, a financial technology company, saying she owed $52,564.28 for a solar panel loan that expires when she’s 106, and costs more than she originally paid for her house.
In 2022, she says, a door-to-door salesman from the company Solgen Construction showed up at her house on the outskirts of Fresno, Calif., pushing what he claimed was a government program affiliated with her utility to get her free solar panels. At one point, he had her touch his tablet device, she says, but he never said she was signing a contract with Solgen or a loan document with GoodLeap. Unbeknownst to Jones, the salesman used "yoursolarguyujosh@gmail.com" as her purported email address—that of course, was not her email address. She’s on a fixed income of $960 a month, and cannot afford the loan she says she was tricked into signing up for; she’s now fighting both Solgen and Goodleap in court.
Her case is not uncommon. Solar customers across the country say that salespeople obscure the specific terms of the financial agreements and cloud the value of the products they peddle. Related court cases are starting to pile up. “I have been practicing consumer law for over a decade, and I’ve never seen anything like what we are seeing in the solar industry right now,” says Kristin Kemnitzer, who represents Jones and says her firm gets “multiple” calls every week from potential clients with similar stories.
Companies running solar farms, on the other hand, have bean-counters in place who are in a legitimate position to run the numbers, and those companies take on the risk themselves. With residential solar, it's not companies saying "hey, we'll put our capital on the line, and just want somewhere to put a panel", it's "here's a graph and some numbers, and there's a great investment opportunity for you with your capital...just sign on the line here!" Needless to say, this opens the door to a lot of potential unpleasantness.
EDIT: If a company sends a guy to your doorstep to tell you how they have a fantastic investment opportunity for you and your money which will make you a great return, a good response is to ask them why they don't want to make the investment themselves. Is it generosity on their part, letting you enjoy the benefit of the investment?
If a solar panel installer wants to put panels on a roof I own, that's fine with me. All they have to do is pay me for the space on my roof and cover the cost of the hardware and its installation. In return, I will let them have the entire value of the generation done, rather than taking it myself. If this is a legitimate investment with a valid return for the party putting money down, then they should be happy to do that.
One notices that there are no residential solar installer companies who are engaging in that sort of arrangement. Cell tower companies do that with cell infrastructure, but not residential solar installers. Hmmm.
While I agree with your sentiment, I'm not sure the cell tower is a good comparison. Very few if any cell towers are installed on a residential single family roof. Leasing part of your plot of land or space on a commercial or multi unit building is a completely different problem than giving a company rights to part of a frame residential home. Who maintains the roof? Who insures the roof? What insurance company will write that policy? It's already getting more complicated to insure rooftop solar because claims are climbing. Now you've got a roof leased to someone else with solar panels on it? Seems to me like any commercial venture would skip all that and go straight to buying or leasing land. Land with no homes. This is the US after all, we have plenty of that laying around.
Companies are offering rooftop solar owned by the residents because they want it, they want the benefits. The problem is that it's rapidly growing and a great target for scams. Especially considering the age demographic of homeowners who have paid off enough of their mortgage that they have collateral for said loans. These companies should be regulated and vetted somehow.
The biggest advantage of balcony-mounted solar panels, at least where I live, is that you need 0 permits. You don't need to ask your neighbors, you don't need to ask your power company, you don't need a building permit, you don't need an electrician and you don't need a solar company to install them for you.
They don't replace large solar farms but if you incentivize people to DIY their solar installation you get tons of additional cheap and clean energy from a source that would be wasted otherwise.
There is a benefit to putting solar close to the load. Less transmission losses/upkeep.
There is a benefit to putting solar on roofs/buildings... Less environmental impact.
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