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Balcony solar finally seems to be taking off in the US. “As of Wednesday, Democratic and Republican lawmakers in 28 states and Washington, D.C., have announced their own legislation to make these systems permissible.”

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Jason KottkeMOD

Do any of you use balcony solar? Thoughts?

M
Mike Akers Edited

I live in NYC and while I don't have a balcony I do have large south facing windows that sometimes let too much light in an turn my apartment into an oven in the summer.... If I could run my AC off solar and bring some shade to my place in the process that would be an amazing win/win

Frances Perkinsale

NY assemblymember Emily Gallagher and Senator Liz Krueger introduced legislation last fall, and it's in committee now! Send a note to your reps asking them to support it.

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NeutralMilkSofitel

so they keep calling this plug in solar... what do you plug it into though? It's not like it can just go into a socket right?

J
Joel

yes actually it does! It just plugs right into an outlet. It's super unintuitive but it just means less electricity comes in from the grid when it's plugged in.

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Roland Tanglao

endlich :-) i've been hearing about this for at least 5 years from friends in Germany :-)

A
Allister Banks

I got into the idea of generating electricity at home (been coveting a system like the somewhat cheesy https://rockthebike.com/ sells) and bought a panel and a power bank a few years back. It’s been underwhelming vs the spec’d wattage a panel is SUPPOSED to pull in if the readout is to be believed (I rarely break 40-50 watts at peak sunlight and perfect positioning on a foldable 100W panel) but it makes me feel good and I have a surprisingly large amount of battery-powered gear I can offload into. Also I changed the face on my watch to show sun position and as it rises/sets relatively early (no daylight savings over here) it motivates me to kickoff starting my day. (And while grids have been reliable in this country with plentiful natural calamities… it’s recommended by the gov’t to have 3 days worth of backup, you can tie recent EV’s to the system in newer houses.)

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