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A comment that I heard recently is that in some places using solar panels is literally cheaper than using wood panels for fences. I'm not sure how true that is
by jillesvangurp 1y ago
A comment that I heard recently is that in some places using solar panels is literally cheaper than using wood panels for fences.
I'm not sure how true that is of course but it does make you think a bit. The optimal place where to put solar panels increasingly is becoming "wherever you can afford to". If vertical space is what you have, why not use it?
People in apartments don't have access to roofs. But they might have balconies. Balcony railings can fit a few solar panels usually.
You can buy solar panels for use on balconies in the supermarket in Germany. They only generate a few hundred watt. But that can add up to close to something like a kwh per day if you get a lot of sun on your balcony. At 40 cents per kwh. That's 12 or so euros per month. I pay about 70 per month currently. And I can get a couple of balcony panels for something like 200-300 euros. And I might get some money back on those even. The idea with balcony solar is that it might offset part of what your fridge uses. You simply plug it into a wall socket and your fridge takes that power instead of from the grid. All safe and approved equipment, the inverter cuts the power if there is no grid power.
I haven't done this (my balcony faces east and only gets a few hours of sun in the early morning). But it's easy to see how this could work.
- wiredfool 1y agoQuick look near here -- wood panels are ~50-99eur for .9->1.8m x 1.8m fence panels. I've priced out 550W solar panels (which should be about 1x2M) for about 100£. (Both retail, but different countries (ire/uk)) So, not price parity but also only about a factor of 2 or so. On the other hand, Ali Express panels are about half that UK price at a 10 panel quantity, with unknown shipping. I'm kind of eyeing the concrete block wall in the back garden currently covered by a hedge.
- childintime 1y agoSadly in Germany you mostly miss out on one big advantage one often gets in sunny countries: power during outages. That said, WW3 terrorism acts may change that. It could be wise to have at least some backup.
- somat 1y agoAlmost no private solar installations give power during outage, for the most part they use something called a grid tied inverter. This uses the power grid to shape the waveform and costs about a tenth of what a self shaping inverter costs. the unexpected downside, no grid, no power. I have yet to find conclusive evidence if it is possible to use a small full inverter to drive grid tied inverters, that is, have the grid off capability of a full inverter with the cheap cost of a grid tied inverter. It sounds reasonable, but I don't see anyone doing it.
- giantg2 1y agoYou mean something like feeding a grid fed inverter an artificially generated wave form from a Raspberry Pi and some relays or something?
- jvanderbot 1y agoI don't see why you can't flip a giant switch to go from grid to home power. It's not automatic, but this tech is well established for gas generator cutover in factories and remote homes.
- extraduder_ire 1y agoThe hardest part of that is regulatory compliance on whatever interlock you have installed that prevents you from connecting mains to your backup. The most common solution to that is a switch that goes through fully disconnected in the middle, and I've even seen a sliding metal plate used that interferes with at least one or both circuit breakers.
- matthewdgreen 1y agoYou need a home backup battery with a transfer switch, specifically one that accepts solar input. There are a bunch of off-the-shelf solutions out there.
- 1y ago
- Qwertious 1y ago>A comment that I heard recently is that in some places using solar panels is literally cheaper than using wood panels for fences. ...that might have been my comment. Or someone else repeating it. I was wrong, I misremembered "in X years solar is projected to be cheaper than wood panels for fences". X being, IIRC, maybe 3 years? The point still stands, but the fact doesn't. Not til ~2028.