Solar panels on the balcony and loggia: features, reviews

Not only the owners of private houses think about the autonomy of their homes. This topic is also relevant for apartment owners. And if they cannot get their own well, then the portal Our site is ready to tell you about installing a solar panel on a balcony or loggia of a high-rise building.

The portal spoke in detail about the varieties, selection rules and benefits of solar panels for private houses. We will no longer touch on the varieties, noting only that polycrystalline panels are most often used for installation on loggias and balconies, which can work even on cloudy days.

This is a logical choice, because unlike batteries installed on the roof of a private house or on a plot strictly to the south, the owners have much less choice of location. Of course, it is ideal if the balcony or loggia faces the south side of the house. You can put the solar panel on a balcony facing east or west, but you should be prepared for a significant drop in efficiency.

In addition to the inability to choose the side of the world for installing the solar panel, the apartment owner faces the problem of lack of space. Just do the math – one 50 W solar panel measures 540x620x30 millimeters. How many can be installed directly on or behind a standard balcony? Maximum four, as evidenced by user experience. On a long loggia, of course, the number of panels can be increased.

Where to install? There are several options:

• Behind the balcony, under the windows or just behind the parapet, if the balcony is not glazed. You need to be able to provide a slight upward slope in order to “catch” as much of the sun’s rays as possible.
• On the rooftop balcony if you have the last floor. In other cases, this option is not suitable for loggias either..
• On the windows from the outside.
• On windows or walls from the inside. In this case, the panel is protected from wind, rain and snow, but, according to the reviews of the owners who tried this installation method, the efficiency of the solar battery behind the glass will be lower! As one of the owners of solar panels on the balcony noted, directly on the street, one module on a sunny day showed an output current of 5.7 A, and the second at the same time behind the glass – only 3 A.

In addition, the solar panel on the window will of course obscure the surrounding landscape, the room will be darker..

Important! For installation on glass, you should choose special flexible modules. By the way, they are not so noticeable from the street and are translucent..

Important! In winter, when the temperature is less than +5 degrees, the efficiency of the batteries drops significantly. According to experts, it is absolutely impossible to store them on an open balcony in winter! We’ll have to bring the battery into the house and think about how to lead wires to it from an uninsulated balcony.

In addition to the solar modules themselves, apartment owners will need a charge controller, a battery (to use solar energy in the dark), and a sine-wave inverter (Grid-tie inverter). The price of the issue will be different. Moreover, the solar panel itself can cost, for example, 5 thousand rubles, and a battery plus a controller and an inverter can already cost up to 50 thousand rubles. As a result, according to user reviews, the entire set of one solar module and the rest of the equipment can cost at least 70 thousand rubles.

Important! Users advise that when installing solar panels in frames outside the window on the upper floors, take into account the possibility of strong gusts of wind. Let the module itself weigh a little, but it should be fixed thoroughly!

We advise you to buy ready-made kits designed specifically for installation in apartments. These balcony solar panels are sold with a built-in micro-inverter that converts DC to AC. As a result, there will be no need to change anything in the energy supply system of the apartment. The special module is plugged into the socket and the current is distributed throughout the system.

In the European Union in 2019, the technical standard DIN VDE 0100–551–1 should be earned. Its full name is Low Voltage Power Generation Equipment – Connecting power generation equipment to operate in parallel with other energy sources, including the public distribution network. Surprisingly, until now only in some European countries the owners of apartments in multi-storey buildings were allowed to legally use solar panels connected to the public network. The new standard should change the situation.

According to its rules, restrictions will apply:

• The peak power of solar modules should not exceed 600 W. However, on an ordinary balcony you can’t install anymore.
• The maximum current limit is set. For example, in Switzerland, this figure should not exceed 2.6 A.
• Apartment owners who install solar panels are obliged to change the electric meter to a special one equipped with a blocker. This is due to the fact that on a sunny day the modules can generate more electricity than the residents of the apartment consumed. In this case, surplus electricity flows into the general power grid, and the meter will start spinning in the opposite direction, reducing the consumption indicators. In general, this is true, but the officials decided it was wrong. The question is being considered that the electricity supply companies will be responsible for the installation of meters with blockers..
• The system must have a residual current function.

How quickly do solar panels on a balcony and loggia pay off? We managed to find examples of calculations only for Germany. In the conditions of this country, when a 300 W kit costs about 450 euros, and the price of one kWh is 0.29 euros, the purchase of solar modules with all components pays off within four years.