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European-style plug-in solar could quickly cut soaring utility bills in Massachusetts (www.bostonglobe.com)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/energy@slrpnk.net
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Small, “balcony solar” units hold particular appeal for renters who cannot install rooftop panels and could take portable units with them should they move.

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[–] 5 points 3 months ago (7 children)

does that even work in a split-phase system?

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  • [–] 9 points 3 months ago (6 children)

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split-phase_electric_power ?

    Solar microinverters are usually for single phase (sync to 230 VAC 50 Hz) and the balkonkraftwerk ones are plugged in into wall sockets. Of course, if there are multiple phases in a household you can plug in an solar microinverter output into a socket that's on a different phase. They turn off within some 20 ms or less, so this is safe if mains losing power.

    There are regular solar inverters that can deal with three phases, and also some which can deal with battery charging and can operate in insular mode and are black start capable.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago (5 children)

    i'm mostly thinking of how it works when production is larger than demand in the local circuit. phase imbalances are a bigger deal when the phases are 180° out of sync.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago (3 children)

    When production is larger than local demand you're feeding in into the power grid. If your meter can ran backwards, then you're saving even more money.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    in a normal three-phase system, yes. you just slightly imbalance one phase. but in a split-phase system, backfeeding can move the neutral point.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago

    Most states are limiting balcony solar to 600-1200W, which is only 5-10A at 120V. Not enough to cause problems with imbalanced loads in a home, and most peoples homes aren't terribly well balanced anyways. It all more or less evens out by the time you have 10-20 (or however many - idk, I'm not a lineman) homes on a tranformer.

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