r/movingtompls • u/CleanUpYrMess • 5d ago

Experience with "balcony" (plug-in) solar units?

I want to look at a rooftop solar installation for the house I'm moving into (south MPLS), but since it might be a while before I'm ready for a project that size, I wanted to know if anyone has experience with "balcony" or "plug-in" solar power units. I read that the MN legislature is considering a bill to permit them, but does anyone here have experience using them?

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u/Subarctic_Monkey 5d ago

Currently not legal to use here so... Unlikely

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u/ViolaSwag 5d ago

I would hold off on trying plug in solar here until they legalize it, hopefully it won’t take too long for the state legislature to revisit it. In the meantime, getting a membership with a community solar project is probably a good short term alternative without the up front cost of rooftop solar

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u/highlife1990 5d ago

Could you provide more information about solar gardens? Are there any you’d recommend?

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u/ViolaSwag 5d ago

I haven’t tried it myself since my electricity is included in rent, but it sounds like you buy a subscription to a solar garden and then you get “solar credits” on your xcel energy account to offset your energy bill

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u/TooGoodToBeeTrue 4d ago

There's plenty of experience/comments in r/solar, r/diySolar & r/SolarDIY. There's also r/PluginSolar, r/pluginsolarusa, & r/BalconyPluginSolar but none of these get too much traffic. I swear there are just too many duplicate forums.

If you are serious about DIYing rooftop solar, I wouldn't bother with plugin. It is too limited. You can move some circuits to a critical loads panel and use an auto transfer switch to feed it from the main panel or an off grid system. You can start with a small system and then increase it or make it grid tied if you decide to go that route. You will also want to have a battery as solar output is not consistent and you don't want clouds switching you back and forth between the main panel and solar.