Solar for your apartment
- Dad Prime
- May 24, 2024
- 4 min read
Updated: Jun 27, 2024
Let's face facts.
Roughly 34% of American's live in a rental of some sort. That could be a apartment or a home.
Electricity costs are only ever going up. Currently my electric company has a time of rate use of $0.11 per kwh at nights and weekends, but $0.22 from 11am-7pm. For draws like lights and TVs this isn't a huge deal, but Air Conditioning will crush a budget.
Renters really need some options to produce their own power that can be set up as an appliance not needing installation. Thankfully products that allow this are readily available and on the market today.
Now let's cover some terminology before we start.
Load shifting: This means you use a battery that charges at night during cheaper electrical rates and then uses that power to offset your use when prices go high during the day.
Battery: A battery can be a device such as a lithium ion/iron pack, lead acid car batteries, or even a thermal mass. In this article a battery will be some form of Lithium pack.
Inverter: A device that translates the DC power of a Lithium or Lead Acid battery into AC electricity you can use in your home.
Charger: A device that takes AC or DC voltage and charges a battery.
Solar: a panel that converts the sun's energy into either electrical or heat energy.
Now when someone mentions solar most people imagine a expensive setup with permanently installed roof panels and lots of wiring. While this isnt really reflective of the industry now there are still scammers who sell solar like this. Thankfully now there are off the shelf solutions that can be taken out of a box and set up with no more wiring than would be needed for a home theater system.
Many companies have been producing off the shelf systems for home solar that require no installation or permits. The entire package sets up in a temporary fashion and is designed to fold up and be carried / rolled off. You use extension cables to plug appliances into the main unit. Solar panels are set up outside on a patio and run indoors through a window or sliding door.
If your rental is open to modifying your apartment a little with an integration panel you can power central air conditioning, furnace, and stove part of your setup. If not you can get a window heat pump tied to your solar system that does much of if not all of the heating/cooling eliminating your use of the build in system.
Here's a simple solution for an apartment / rental dweller:
A portable inverter and battery setup:
Right now one of the better systems on the market for an apartment dweller is from Anker. The Anker SOLIX F3800 is perfect for apartment use. The solar input is perfectly geared toward what you could fit on a apartment patio, it's designed to be rolled around, and the system is expandable by adding additional batteries. If your apartment decides to start accommodating these sorts of battery systems or you decide to buy a home in the future these can be tied into a home integration panel.
The setup of this device is easy and controlled by your phone. You just plug it into a wall outlet and then plug in your devices. Instantly you can do load shifting lowering your electric bill by using cheaper overnight power. Optionally you add solar panels and you'll consume your solar power first, then cheaper overnight power.
Solar panels
For the Anker SOLIX F3800 you can have up to 6 440W solar panels. There is a specific way to wire these that you can find on the Anker site. However this is the absolute max. Smaller apartments might only support 2 or 4 panels. Now I don't have an affiliate link for this company. They're just a good company to deal with and their prices are very fair. Compare this to what other companies are charging per panel.
Solar panel mounts
If you're on the ground level you can mount your solar panels on a DIY wood rack or something you can buy online. Here's an option you can buy and build yourself and then weigh down with sand bags on your patio:
As for upper level apartments you can use the same mounts on your patio, or there is a new mount you can buy or make yourself. You might need to clear it with your apartment manager however so your milage may vary.
A heat pump / air conditioner
Your biggest source of energy usage in an apartment will be your air conditioner. If you have an AC that's a window, wall, or package unit that plugs into a standard wall socket then you have an easy upgrade. Just unplug it from the wall and plug it directly into your Anker SOLIX F3800. Now your AC consumes the solar you produce and cheaper energy you obtained over night instead of the expensive daytime electricity.
If you have a installed HVAC system with no plugs then you can just turn it off and use a portable HVAC Heat pump unit like this:
Plug it directly into the Anker SOLIX F3800.
Extension cords
These are fairly self explanatory. When you decide where your F3800 will live you'll need to run extension cords to your devices. Unless you're going under rugs you'll want to hug the wall, and you'll want thicker gauge wire especially for high drain devices like your AC or Fridge. Here is one good example
For 120V devices like your fridge
For your solar panels you will need one of these per panel you buy.
Hope this helps. If you find it does please use the links above or support me on Patreon. Dad needs his coffee. ;)
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