Comment by jszymborski
Comment by jszymborski 16 hours ago
Germans seem to be rather fond of balcony solar
Comment by jszymborski 16 hours ago
Germans seem to be rather fond of balcony solar
The NEC is also in conflict with homeowners performing simple electrical work, such as replacing switches and outlets.
That's an interesting way to word "the most efficient way". A solar setup that meets the energy needs of the entire household is going to have to be oversized, which is a waste. Meanwhile, 100% of the output of balcony solar is almost always going to be fully utilized by the household, meaning 100% of your investment goes into lowering your ever-rising electricity bill.
Any time you're exporting to the grid, you're losing out - the rates are never good. Check out the OP's graph. His setup is oversized by about 2x. He's exporting to the grid for most of the day, which is hardly useful, then pulling from the grid after 6pm - the worst of both worlds. Downsizing the solar setup 2x and investing that into batteries would be much better.
> your ever-rising electricity bill.
It's not a surprise that your bill is rising if people consume less during the day because they install balcony solar, but don't meaningfully change their peak consumption, and therefore, don't meaningfully reduce the grid investment required.
At least the blog's author has a battery setup which meaningfully moves their peak draw.
No, but I'm on a TOU plan where electricity costs me more from 4-8pm, and I get direct afternoon sun. If balcony solar could halve the electricity usage of my AC from like 2-6 in the summer, that would be pretty nice.
Balcony solar is absolute awesome in germany. I get about 30% return on investment per year on my small solar panel. Hard not to do it. I have no idea why it is still a little niche