HOAs and Condo rules and shit.
Why Balcony Solar Panels Haven’t Taken Off in the US
Submitted 11 hours ago by doopinglouie@feddit.org to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.wired.com/story/why-balcony-solar-hasnt-taken-off-in-the-us/
Comments
baronvonj@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
unphazed@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
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.
db2@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
Affording a balcony might be step one though.
nagaram@startrek.website 10 hours ago
I wanted an apartment with a balcony but they’re all $500+ more a month in rent then I’m already paying.
Dojan@pawb.social 7 hours ago
I’m paying $850/mo. for my 2-roomer, with a glassed in balcony. Would definitely forego my balcony if I could pay only 350 for it, but that’s a pipedream. $500 upcharge for a balcony is nuts.
Then again, my dear friend spontaneously got her rent increased by like $1500/month a couple years back, and that sort of practice would be illegal where I live, so I could see how charging $500 more per month for a balcony would be a thing.
tonytins@pawb.social 10 hours ago
Oh, to be in Europe right now.
Dojan@pawb.social 7 hours ago
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.
GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml 5 hours ago
It’s gotten significantly worse in basically every regard here in Sweden with regards to immigration, unfortunately.
RaoulDook@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
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.
clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.works 8 hours ago
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.
Dojan@pawb.social 7 hours ago
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.
varyingExpertise@feddit.org 6 hours ago
I 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.
Dojan@pawb.social 6 hours ago
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!
SMillerNL@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
With the current FAA problems, do y’all really want more things taking off?
tal@lemmy.today 6 hours ago
First image is of an overcast sky with a guy with two solar panels
Third image is of a small solar panel under a roof receiving a little bit of light through an opening in an attic balcony
Dekkia@this.doesnotcut.it 4 hours ago
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.
tal@lemmy.today 3 hours ago
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 solar installation companies providing loans using questionable, if not outright fraudulent sales tactics based around misrepresenting returns.
time.com/…/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 take on the risk themselves.
domi@lemmy.secnd.me 3 hours ago
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.
underline960@sh.itjust.works 2 hours ago
TL;dr: Because we haven’t created a safety standard for it.
!savedyouaclick@lemmy.world