this post was submitted on 01 May 2025
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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 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.
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.
Holy fuck delete this shit. You've described a death plug, and this shit kills grid workers and innocent people who don't know the plug is live. You absolutely NEED a proper system set up for this with a PROPER PLUG and the proper safety disconnects to avoid backfeeding the pover grid and KILLING PEOPLE.
Jesus fucking christ, take your meds
But this is exactly how they are designed to work.
I didn't say that you should diy this but the sets described in this very article works like I described.
Here's a random one with data sheets and installation guide.
https://www.bauhaus.info/balkonkraftwerke/hepa-solar-balkonkraftwerk-set-premium-800-bifazial-0-mwst-/p/31970796
Perhaps you should delete your shitty and wrong rant instead?
No, he’s not described a death plug. The inverters only produce was it sees the sine wave from the grid.
If the grid goes down, break trips, or it’s unplugged, then it stops producing.
Calm down.
It can only produce electricity if it measures the right voltage coming in, it needs to sync to the net. They don't work in island mode.
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.
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).