A few weeks ago, the attorney set up what may be the first plug-and-play solar panel in the Bronx. The 220-watt installation, which is secured to the balcony railing with zip ties, has been a boon for the renter and mother of two.
“I have an enormous childcare bill every month. My electricity bills never go anything but up,” Phillips said. “Everywhere you turn, things are only getting more expensive.”
Plug-in solar nonprofit Bright Saver, which provided the roughly $400 panel to Phillips at no cost, estimated that it will produce about 15 percent to 20 percent of the electricity her family uses and save her about $100 per year. Every time Phillips gazes at the device, she said, she’s amazed that “this is just a thing that I plugged in, and I’m generating my own power.”
a) There are stainless steel zip ties, which would be perfectly suitable for the task. The article does not specify the type of zipties used. If they used plastic ones, I’d agree with you.
b) No, the microinverters used in balcony solar need to synchronize to the grid’s frequency. If the power is shut off, they cannot synchronize and won’t work. Some older microinverters where retrofitted with additional safety switches but current ones have them included.
c) Yeah, that’s a valid concern, where I live the maximum allowed power you are allowed to feed into the grid is 800 watt, which is okay considering the common electrical installation, though we use 230V. With 120V amperage doubles with the same power, so a sensible limit would probably be diffrent, but I don’t know whats commonly used in america