Lets go solar punk!
this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2026
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Can you setup power stations to only charge on solar and plug them into AC but they only use AC once the battery is flat? Most things I see talk about charging on solar+AC but I wouldn't want it charging at all from the grid as that is pointless.
This should bypass any regulations as energy only goes one direction and you are not feeding anything back. But having the AC there allows it to keep working when the battery runs flat.
If you aim for zero feed in you will need input from sensors like Shelly 3E and a controller that can deal with it.
At this point its looking like full house setup is probably more cost effective. Probably come up with something to use the excess energy produced by it especially over summer. Get a pool and stick a heater in it?
The balcony solar systems in Germany are cheap and plug-in-ready, no licensed electrician required. If you need one, the payback time is going to be much longer.
With whole house setup which is much bigger it make sense to invest in an EV and/or a heat pump. Few pay all that in cash, and now there is a bank in the loop.
What do you mean by bank in the loop, for a loan? Have no need for that, would plan to have enough to pay what ever the quote is before accepting it. But sure, not paying in literal cash - who even uses cash these days? Got a heat pump already and no need for an EV.
From what I recall about these kits, they do not include any sort of batteries.
In Germany many of them now do.
You can buy batteries though and get solar panels to charge them. It doesn't need to feed the power line of the house as you can take power directly from the battery, works fully off grid.
Some function as a UPS too. I guess a really nice option to use that could be to instead go to mains at 0% instead go for 20% or so which gives you time to turn things off if there is a power cut.
I don't know the legislation in the US, but in Germany, the plug-in "balcony" solar plants have to switch off immediately if the external grid disconnects in case of e.g. a blackout or if the (male Schuko) connector is unplugged.
Some inverters have a seperate (female Schuko) socket that remains powered in case of a blackout.
Some inverters are bundled with or capable of being connected to a battery that is only charged if an excess of solar energy is harvested and is discharged, if the solar input is lower.
The limits are either 800 W, which is the maximum the inverter of a plug-in solar plant is allowed to provide, or the power consumption of your household (on all three phases combined) if that's lower than 800 W. In the latter case, an additional smart meter needs to be installed at the main connection of your household, measuring said power consumption and feeding the controller of the inverter with that information.
Been talking to someone with a full house solar/battery setup and it's actually looking probably more cost effective to go with that instead. Though my usage is low so it may take a while to pay for its self. May well be able to get to pretty much no grid usage.
My peak usage in winter is just under 750kWh over a month, or 25kWh a day on average. Summer goes as low as 220kWh a month. Got some plans to hopefully lower the winter peak usage too.
Pennsylvania is considering this as well. Pretty cool.