Utah seems to be doing some cool things lately (try are featured in this article). They were at IIW this year talking about their new digital identity setup, too.
this post was submitted on 20 May 2025
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HOAs and Condo rules and shit.
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.
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Affording a balcony might be step one though.
I wanted an apartment with a balcony but they're all $500+ more a month in rent then I'm already paying.
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.
Tl;dr: Because we haven't created a safety standard for it.
The lack of an Underwriters Laboratories (UL) standard is perhaps the biggest obstacle to the adoption of balcony solar. The company certifies the safety of thousands of household electrical products; according to Iowa State University, “every light bulb, lamp, or outlet purchased in the US usually has a UL symbol and says UL Listed.” This assures customers that the product follows nationally recognized guidelines and can be used without the risk of a fire or shock.
Safety standards? Sounds like anti-profit standards! Guess who DOGE is cutting next!
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Oh, to be in Europe right now.
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.
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.
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.
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"I don't want no woke commie energy"
I just took portable ones and ziptied them to my balcony connected to a solar generator. Works to feed all my electronics and server equipment. It only connects to the grid if its depleted, never feeds power back in.
So you can still do this in the states, so long as you're not feeding into the grid.
without reading the article I will guess... HOA regulations. How'd I do?
Not so good - issue is that your "code" for electrical installations doesn't include balcony solar and that your institutions are not able to include it because of reasons that do not make sense to anyone outside the USA
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Or the fact that most people with balconies live in rented apartments and apartment managers aren't going to pay to subsidize an electric bill that tenants are entirely responsible for paying.
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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.
It 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.
As long as you have one of the old Ferraris style meters, it just runs backwards, these usually pay for themselves in about three years on a sunny balcony that way.
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!
Huh, the wiring just supports power spontaneously coming from an exit point rather than an entry? Is that commonplace?
Why wouldn't it? Electrical wiring isn't a one way road, electricity (this is an extreme oversimplification, especially when it comes to AC) will always flow from points of high voltage to points of lower voltage. That's how solar inverters feed into the grid. Raise their voltage a tad bit higher than the grid and match the frequency and phase of the grid until the outflow matches their maximum available power.
Is that commonplace?
That is a hard question, because this isn't a feature, it's how things are. Only thing one needs to take care of is that the solar inverter doesn't deliver so much power that the circuit can consume beyond the circuit breakers capacity, otherwise the breaker would be rendered useless. That's why these small plug inverters are limited to 800W in Germany, that puts the entire possible load on a 16A circuit into the general upper limit that is still within the safety margin fro 16A circuits.
EDIT: Now before someone gets the bright idea to connect their diesel generator to the grid this way: Don't. It will not be in sync or phase and that will make something spectacular happen, but it will not supply the grid. Either have an expensive generator that is able to sync to the grid or have a grid disconnect and switchover in front of your generator plugin socket.
EDITEDIT: Also please never connect an island capable solar inverter to a plug. The ones described above are safe that way, because they wait for grid voltage to be available before they do anything, so there will never be high voltage on the open plug. An island capable solar inverter does by definition not do that. There will be high voltage on the plug and it will kill you and it will hurt like a fucker the entire time you're dying.
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My parents recently bought a couple and put them on the shed, you plug it in and magically, it feeds electricity into your home power network. No idea how bit it definitely works!
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