5 ms·
Landlord-friendly, but perhaps not city-friendly. In a lot of big cities (i.e., where us apartment dwellers tend to live), it's illegal to hang something like t
by mumblemumble 6y ago
Landlord-friendly, but perhaps not city-friendly. In a lot of big cities (i.e., where us apartment dwellers tend to live), it's illegal to hang something like that out your window because of the risk of injury to people down on the sidewalk.
That picture of it basically just propped up on the window ledge makes me particularly nervous. That's leaving you one gust of wind away from being out a few hundred bucks' worth of solar panel and few thousand bucks' worth of personal liability.
I like the idea of creating green energy options that are more portable, but this one seems just a bit too portable. Perhaps there's a need some sort of mounting system like what they do for window unit air conditioners, where it's a bit more securely secured?
(edit: I'm also having second thoughts on whether this is actually an good idea from an environmental perspective. If you do heat or air condition, I'm guessing you'll lose vastly more energy due to leaving your window slightly gapped in order to run a wire through it than you gain in from the solar panel.)
- polishdude20 6y agoThat can easily be solved with straps. Now whether the user chooses to use straps or not is their problem.
- itake 6y agoThe images look like they were taken in San Francisco. Even with straps, I would expect the rubbing of the panel against the side of your house will cause damage in 98 MPH winds. You will also need to monitor the condition of the straps in case there is sun or weather damage. https://www.sfchronicle.com/weather/article/top-wind-speeds-storm-Marin-Bay-Area-13541241.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/weather/article/top-wind-speeds-...
- mindslight 6y agoYou must have missed that the kit contains "8 x zip ties" to solve this. (/s) The pictures appear to show them zip tying a panel to a coax run that was just laying across the roof? sigh. Engineering is cool. Hipster-marketing stuff from Aliexpress while punting on the hard problems is not.
- mumblemumble 6y agoYeah, I saw that. I think I mentally translated "We zip-tie them so that strong winds don't blow them away" to "We zip tie them so that the solar panel can help you rip down all that ugly coax cable that the Comcast technician barely attached to the side of the building the next time there's strong wind."
- asdff 6y agoDepends on the city. In LA, half the balconies have surfboards or ac units hanging precariously or an overgrowing garden. This would blend right in.