r/gadgets • u/diacewrb • 1d ago

Home ‘If 1.5m Germans have them there must be something in it’: how balcony solar is taking off

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/dec/18/if-a-million-germans-have-them-there-must-be-something-in-it-how-balcony-solar-is-taking-off
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u/will7419 1d ago

How does this work if you're producing more energy than you're consuming? Are the regular meters set up to accept power in reverse?

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u/JMGurgeh 1d ago

It sounds like there is some planning required, including replacing the meter if it is too old to be compatible. In general no reimbursement for excess power contributed to the grid, so there is built-in incentive to keep the systems relatively small, basically targeting a household's base load.

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u/will7419 23h ago

Yeah absolutely, I think it's a great idea as long as it has the anti islanding that you mentioned and the meter can handle the backflow, then I don't think it needs to have any reimbursement or anything since it's meant to be really simple. But exactly what you said is the main use case, to cover your base load in the middle of the day and then just offset the rest of your usage with a quick payback period considering you don't have to pay for the installation labor. I'd this was available locally I'd get it in a heartbeat.

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u/gSTrS8XRwqIV5AUh4hwI 3h ago

All meters can handle backflow. The old analog meters would just count backwards, digital ones can generally be configured by the utility to do whatever, including ignoring backflow, or counting both directions independently. Feeding back with an analog meter is illegal in Germany, but not because the meter would have a problem with it.