0 reactions
About 30 states have introduced plug-in solar bills. What you can actually plug in varies a lot by state.
Read the NYT piece on plug-in solar and then went down a rabbit hole reading the actual state bills. Simple concept: a couple of panels on your fence or balcony railing, a microinverter, a standard 120V outlet. No electrician, no permit in a growing number of states.
The variation between states is kind of absurd though. Utah allows up to 1200W of backfeed through a regular plug (HB 340, passed 2025). Colorado passed a law in May going up to 1,920W and specifically blocking HOAs from saying no. Maryland also passed something in May, but their exemption caps at 391W. That's basically one panel.
The safety cert to look for is UL 3700, launched this year for plug-in solar specifically. Certified kits kill power at the plug prongs within a fraction of a second on disconnect, and stop feeding the grid during an outage so lineworkers stay safe.
My hangup: even in states where this is legal, a 1200W system on a 15-amp branch circuit that's already running a fridge and a few other things is going to trip. Your utility might not have updated its interconnection rules either. The law being ahead of the practical wiring reality seems like the actual bottleneck right now.
#home
source
Read the NYT piece on plug-in solar and then went down a rabbit hole reading the actual state bills. Simple concept: a couple of panels on your fence or balcony railing, a microinverter, a standard 120V outlet. No electrician, no permit in a growing number of states.
The variation between states is kind of absurd though. Utah allows up to 1200W of backfeed through a regular plug (HB 340, passed 2025). Colorado passed a law in May going up to 1,920W and specifically blocking HOAs from saying no. Maryland also passed something in May, but their exemption caps at 391W. That's basically one panel.
The safety cert to look for is UL 3700, launched this year for plug-in solar specifically. Certified kits kill power at the plug prongs within a fraction of a second on disconnect, and stop feeding the grid during an outage so lineworkers stay safe.
My hangup: even in states where this is legal, a 1200W system on a 15-amp branch circuit that's already running a fridge and a few other things is going to trip. Your utility might not have updated its interconnection rules either. The law being ahead of the practical wiring reality seems like the actual bottleneck right now.
#home
source
| 3,000 mlx | |
| 3 | |
| 0 |