Small plug-in solar panels gain traction - Regulation be damned \ stacker news ~tech

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Small plug-in solar panels gain traction - Regulation be damned

486 sats \ 11 comments \ @Wumbo 9 Dec tech

I glad to see companies providing an entry level system to consumers and not worrying about government restrictions.

I will not be surprised if these companies start getting targeted.

They need to start selling some bitcoin miners as heaters along with the panel kit.

Just plug in two things (panels and miners) and you will stay warm.

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10 sats \ 9 replies \ @Undisciplined 9 Dec

Very cool. I’m thinking about getting some of these once the winter is over.

69 sats \ 8 replies \ @Wumbo OP 23h

I have heard, it may be urban legend, that the digital smart electrical meters will measure electrical flow any directions (into your or out of your house) as positive usage. Compared the analog one that would roll the meter backwards, if you produced more electricity than was consumed.

Also I have heard, let again maybe urban legend, that some power companies will flag your account if a negative power flow is detected, with out being registered with them as a solar costumer.

Both of my points may be just scare tactics but worth knowing before you go down the path.

10 sats \ 5 replies \ @Undisciplined 23h

I believe those things are highly locality dependent, which means I need to look into how my locality treats them.

86 sats \ 4 replies \ @justin_shocknet 20h

Back-feeding is generally a complicating variable for the grid operator which is why most utilities/regs forbid it without some kind of registration.

I assume these plug in devices, or at least the ones they're trying to make not require a permit, are designed to prevent back-feeding and just slow the rate of delivery.

These things are still fiscally unwise, and that's why solar relies heavily on subsidies.

An example from the video was $1600 to save 5-10% on the bill cost... let's assume 10% of a $250 bill... thats a 5.5 year recoup, assuming you otherwise would have let the $1600 melt by not putting it to work in another way like debt service, coin, or even a money market.

Will the panel last 5.5 years? how much time will you spend fucking with it to get that 10% payback? Once it does pay itself back, did you really make anything after depreciating the panels, how much longer to make an actual return given that?

The only real use-case for these panels is backup if your grid is unreliable, that requires another cost in a battery... and thats not saving you money, thats you paying a premium for reliability.

Hooking a solar/battery setup to a dedicated bitcoin space heater may offset some of the premium you're paying for having the backup/reliability, but there's no math that will ever make these an investment unto themselves.

27 sats \ 3 replies \ @Undisciplined 20h

I’m not sure about now but I’ve lived places where I was at least under the impression that you could sell power back to the grid without permission.

I never looked into it in depth though.

Also, I live somewhere now with peak-pricing in the afternoons, which is when we use the ac most, so it might knock of a bigger chunk of the bill.

85 sats \ 2 replies \ @justin_shocknet 19h

It's certainly possible and available in some areas, but rare. Mesh and 4G enabled meters are a step in that direction, but the head-end/SCADA in most places would still buckle if it were to happen at scale. At my last fiat job with a big utility we couldn't even get permitted stuff connected in a timely manner, massive solar fields sitting unproductive for years (thanks government subsidies!)

Back-feeding at peak rates would certainly help accelerate amortized recoup of gear, but if you ran the numbers I have no doubt you'd find it would still be a cost, or a risky to break-even investment at best.

There's trillions of dollars chasing any whiff of energy arb that may exist, if you can plug in a panel to arb it, so can industrial scale solar. The real arb is going off-grid completely, but that's still a risky to break-even investment given the duration over which you'd have to amortize it.

17 sats \ 1 reply \ @Undisciplined 19h

That’s generally my perspective too. If Walmart’s roof isn’t covered in solar panels, it’s probably not a great financial decision.

However, it becomes a fairly low cost backup power option under the right conditions.

80 sats \ 0 replies \ @justin_shocknet 19h

backup power option

Yep, money is where my mouth is on this one. Love my solar generator, cost on batteries and panels has come down so much it's no-brainer insurance where I live... even though I'll really get sick looking at how much it cost me in Bitcoin terms several years from now.

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10 sats \ 1 reply \ @BallLightning 21h

I remember in the university many years ago we had an exercise where we tinkered with electrical meters. The mechanical one did turn both ways depending on the direction if the power flow. But that was more of a side effect of how the device worked, not some design decision. The digital one from that time did measure positive usage in both directions. I am not sure whether this was design decision... We only tinkered with the mechanical one, but we did test the digital one in both directions.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Wumbo OP 20h

That sounds like a fun class you took.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @Fenix 22h

Plug-and-play solar energy isn’t a big deal these days, I think. It turns out that nowadays people looking for it because they’re more efficient and smaller. Individuals like us are increasingly seeking off-grid .