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Balcony Solar: $1.74/watt direct plug-in solar

brightsaver.org

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Re: Balcony Solar: $1.74/watt direct plug-in solar

#2

Post by otterley »

So that's what an old-school infomercial translated to the Web looks like:

"We pass the savings onto you! [Just pay $29/year membership fee!]"

(Seriously, though. 180W? That's not a ton of "help" for a typical refrigerator that draws anywhere between 300 and 800W.)

(Also, seriously, though. Most apartment owners and condo HOAs won't allow their residents to put these on their balconies.)

Re: Balcony Solar: $1.74/watt direct plug-in solar

#4

Post by kotaKat »

otterley wrote: post #2

So that's what an old-school infomercial translated to the Web looks like: "We pass the savings onto you! [Just pay $29/year membership fee!]" (Seriously, though. 180W? That's not a ton of "help" for a typical refrigerator that draws anywhere between 300 and 800W.) (Also, seriously, though. Most apartment owners and condo HOAs won't allow their residents to put these on their balconies.)

The costs just don't make sense to me given you can only produce a 'maximum' amount of solar power per year and thus will only have a theoretical max savings that might only amount to anywhere between $100-400/year depending on size and system, and some of the plug-in solar systems I've seen have been running upwards of $3000+.

I know I can't justify spending $3k upfront to only offset $25/month at best. I'd rather just turn off a few lights and stop paying for Netflix.

It seems like a large cost for not a lot of power offset that's also unusable when the power goes out (since you can't run untied from the grid).

Re: Balcony Solar: $1.74/watt direct plug-in solar

#5

Post by itsrobreally »

otterley wrote: post #2

So that's what an old-school infomercial translated to the Web looks like: "We pass the savings onto you! [Just pay $29/year membership fee!]" (Seriously, though. 180W? That's not a ton of "help" for a typical refrigerator that draws anywhere between 300 and 800W.) (Also, seriously, though. Most apartment owners and condo HOAs won't allow their residents to put these on their balconies.)

Can confirm, setup a couple hundred watts as a hobby project during the pandemic and built a battery pack - the biggest challenge (other than matching connectors) is finding anything other than just "charging devices" that the thing is practical for - until you get up around 1000W a lot of "normal" stuff is just too hungry.

Re: Balcony Solar: $1.74/watt direct plug-in solar

#9

Post by epistasis »

a_ba wrote: post #7

That seems crazy expensive. In Germany small-self install kits are quite popular. Hitting up amazon.de shows kits for around € 0.3/watt

The US has high tariffs on solar, batteries, and pretty much all the best and cheapest electricity generation technologies.
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