“Easy-to-install solar panels that plug into a regular outlet are getting attention just as Americans are worried about rising energy costs. That’s because these plug-in or balcony solar panels start shaving off part of a homeowner’s or renter’s utility bill right away.
“”A year ago, nobody was talking about this,” says Cora Stryker, co-founder of Bright Saver, a California nonprofit group that advocates for plug-in solar. The panels are already popular in Germany, where more than 1.2 million of the small plug-in systems are registered with the German government.”
This is genuinely so fucking cool. I had never even considered that you could just plug a solar panel into a regular outlet and it wouldn’t like, somehow completely wreck your electrical system or something.
As someone who probably won’t own my home soon, if ever, if I end up living in an apartment where I owe money for the electricity I use rather than it being an inclusive bundle with the rent, it could be genuinely really cool to just have a solar panel or two I can hang off a balcony, offset some of my electricity cost, but still be able to take it with me whenever I inevitably have to move out because the landlord decides he’s gonna try to squeeze me for more rent.
It’s not “just” a solar panel, to be legally compliant in Germany. The part you plug in is basically a control unit. They aren’t super big and complex, but they need to be able to do 2 things:
Detect if there’s a live circuit, and not transmit any power if not. This is because sometimes electricity is turned off for maintenance. You don’t want an electrician dying because a line they turned off is actually live due to someone having this plugged in.
Power limiter, similar in function to a circuit breaker. This prevents overcurrents happening in your walls and starting a fire. Because all of this is happening after a house’s breaker box, they won’t flip if the combined grid + solar current is too high, so the solar unit’s control unit has to be able to deal with it.
Disclaimer: I’m a layman, not an electrician. Just read into the tech because it’s interesting to me.
Thanks for the info, these were exactly the questions I had!
Indeed this is how most people in Germany are using them. As long as it is a relatively small system and the house has semi-modern cabling it isn’t a big deal at all and works fine.
Plugging a power producer into an outlet does sound like a fast way to light your house on fire.
Or, if you touch the death prongs, death.
But maybe it would work. I’d not trust it, especially not in older houses.
@chaogomu @AmbitiousProcess That’s quite usual for example in Germany now & there are good regulations for these products. They only work when there is grid power coming from the outlet as well, and they are limited in output power, to avoid both the fire and shock hazards.