Australians! Germans! Do you follow the rules like this news article about balcony solar claims? https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2026-11-12/plug-in-solar-and-batteries-may-cause-house-fires/107350418
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@futzle me? Yeah. Other household members, I do not claim to have control over.
I’m a rule follower, especially about electricity, because the consequences can be so severe. Obviously portable solar needs to be a thing, but safety standards must be met. So many cheap imports are of a poor standard.
The real question is whether deals will be done to protect vested interests.
@Susan60 All of those market pressures exist in Germany too. Safety standards have been met. The vested interests are trying on the “not invented here” gambit but I’m not buying it.
If safety standards have been demonstrably met, then it shouldn’t be an issue. I already have solar, battery etc, but renters & people whose homes don’t lend themselves to rooftop solar should also have access.
@futzle was that an attemp at a German yeah nah?
@futzle Australian raised in Germany and I ignore rules that are bullshit?
I'd get plug in solar, but I'd choose the least loaded circuit in the house, check impedance and make sure it had an appropriate breaker. We have an old electric heater circuit, I'd put it on that.
@futzle As an Australian autistic who is dogmatic about rules and instructions, my entire career success is owed to the fact that my peers idea of diagnostics is to flail around randomly until the red text goes away. If I lived in WA right now, I'd be looking for a fully detached house with considerable setbacks on all sides
@futzle The plug-in solar thing feels like a stop-gap measure because it is such a faff to get them installed properly in a strata scheme. Not just the legal hurdles, but also the practical ones, like where to put inverters, since they have been built for years for grid power.
And seeing the shit-show that is the job-seeker system, the government should take control of installing solar+battery into premises, but they won't want to do that. For multiple reasons.
Which is such a shame
One thing I will say about Germans is that, since it’s normal to be lifetime renters there, it’s also normal to take your stuff with you when you move. Furniture, solar panels, kitchen.
Australians, you think I’m joking about the kitchen.
Who among us has never broken a rule?
But… I’m a cautious person by nature, and as I understand absolutely nothing about electricity or the real risks, would not compromise my fire insurance by doing something illegal.
Also, when I do break rules, I try to avoid being conspicuous about it.
@futzle they’re more like guidelines
@futzle aussie here (hopefully obvious from my instance). i've been following it since i heard about it happening in germany last year. i'm keen as mustard to get some since my apartment gets a LOT of sunlight & i'm often fucking broke. my bedroom also faces west. :))))))
@futzle the plug-in units you can buy here (=Germany) off-the-shelf have their output (to the house, not to the batteries) limited to 800 W, which has been deemed safe for standard German residential electric systems. Before Germany got the balcony solar law, we heard a lot of the very same worries here and the 800 W cap was introduced as a kind of compromise.
@draco Interesting! Of course the article doesn’t talk at all about the safety considerations that Germany already built in, because it doesn’t suit the panic narrative.
@futzle @draco this article does indeed read unnecessary fearful, although we in Germany had similar debate like mentioned before that led to the 800 W regulation. In addition, at first, a special connector (Wieland) was mandatory that literally nobody has, but that was changed too so now you can just use a regular power plug.
We have a large PV (6 kW) and one of those 800 W things on the garage just for good measure, I love seeing the bill shrink. 🙂
@futzle it has created a huge boom here, to the annoyance of some energy companies. In combination with batteries and a smart meter, it has cut our electricity bill (which wasn't big for a two-person household) in less than half.
I put it to Matthew Duncan that Australians are, in fact, Germans.