alt Hacker NewsI live in the Phoenix metro area, on the second floor. My balcony faces precisely 225° in azimuth. That is due southwest.
A few years ago, I purchased a "solar backpack" which incorporates a solar panel and a laptop-sized power bank. During the winter solstice, I tried charging the power bank with actual solar energy, and it took more than 3 weeks to fill it up!
Our lease agreement has some concessions for potential satellite dishes and external TV antennas. So I asked my landlady if she would permit me to install solar panels out there. Her answer was a resounding "NO".
It wasn't merely about the aesthetics, but also about the question of hooking them up. Our electricity is unmetered and included in our rent. My unit has an individual circuit breaker box, but how would solar power be fed into such a system? It would be chaos, and the management would have no way of regulating or maintaining such a bizarre setup. I think that's going to be a major logistics challenge for anyone who goes down this road.
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> My unit has an individual circuit breaker box, but how would solar power be fed into such a system? It would be chaos, and the management would have no way of regulating or maintaining such a bizarre setup.
The balcony solar setups are sized to be small enough that they can be fed into standard systems.
There’s no “chaos”. It just offsets consumption a little bit. New electric meters have been able to account for or at least not get confused by reverse flow should it occur at the small levels that balcony solar setups might produce.
A solar backpack is a backpack with a relatively tiny solar panel. It's not designed to power an apartment. It's barely designed to power a laptop. You wouldn't be plugging one of these into the mains.
Solar systems are well understood, as is the business of connecting them to existing power. Magic boxes exist to handle exactly this problem. Connecting them up isn't hard, but installations usually require professional certification to stop people frying themselves and/or their wiring.
DIY solar makes no sense if you're paying your building for unmetered power.
Generally apartment solar can be a nice optional accessory, but very few apartments have the space for a system capable of powering the entire apartment for a significant part of the year.
> Our lease agreement has some concessions for potential satellite dishes and external TV antennas.
This may be because the FCC has pretty strict rules that require apartment buildings to permit dishes and antennas on personal areas like balconies.
Lack of similar laws for solar panels means that most landlords are going to just say "no" rather than take the risk.
> how would solar power be fed into such a system
An inverter.
> management would have no way of regulating or maintaining such a bizarre setup
What kind of regulation is needed? What about this is bizarre? If you’re concerned that these systems might be a fire hazard, that’s already a problem (space heaters, heating blankets, hot plates, etc). If you’re concerned that these systems won’t play nicely on a shared AC line, that’s already a problem (e.g., motors). I don’t see anything “bizarre” here.
A lot of them just plug into a wall outlet.
> Our electricity is unmetered and included in our rent. My unit has an individual circuit breaker box, but how would solar power be fed into such a system
I don't understand. These systems just plug into wall outlets. The big difference is that, instead of saving yourself money, you'd be saving your landlady money on the bill.