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.”
Question from someone who has only done extremely basic electrical work: if this thing is feeding power in on one circuit, can devices on another circuit use that power? I’d been assuming you’d have to plug it in next to whatever you intend to draw from it.
Yes. Power will flow back to the breaker panel, through one breaker, through the panel, then out through another breaker and into another circuit where it can be used.
Most homes have two opposite phases (split-phase) with each circuit being on one or the other. Until something trips a breaker, everything on one phase is effectively wired together.
*most homes in the US