> Anything grid-connected, you REALLY want a licensed electrician to plan and install.

Have you heard of balcony solar?

It's a solar panel, a microinverter, and a standard wall plug. It doesn't need an electrician to install any more than anything else, you just plug it in. Outlets work both ways.

LibreSolar doesn't seem to be working on any inverters, but a complete open source system like this would be great.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balcony_solar_power

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bityard 3 hours ago | parent [-]

If that wikipedia article is right, then balcony solar is not legal where I live (in the US). Here, we require a hard-wired, permanently installed automatic transfer switch that disconnects the solar generation from the grid when the mains power goes out. This is to protect line workers when working on downed lines.

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hamdingers 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It's probably coming soon for you, 30 states have bills announced or introduced legalizing plug-in solar and one (Utah) has already passed. They should be fairly uncontroversial.

Also, there's no need for a transfer switch in any grid-tied system, whether plug-in or hard-wired. Grid-tied inverters shut off automatically if there's no grid frequency to sync to.

	▲	jacquesm an hour ago \| parent [-]
		That simply is a transfer switch that is built in.

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jacquesm an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

99.9% of all inverters currently being sold has this functionality built in. That 0.1% remaining you will find in the second hand market and the bargain bin of Amazon.