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Your first balcony solar installation
A balcony installation is four purchases, and three of them are decided by the first. Here is the order they have to happen in, and the one figure that settles each.
By Jean-Benoit Buisson
The order matters more than the choices
Four purchases, and three of them depend on the first.
The kit decides the panel dimensions. The panel dimensions decide the mount. The distance from the panel to the socket decides the cable. And the meter is the only one you can buy at any point — though buying it first tells you what you were using before, which is the number the whole exercise is measured against.
1. The kit, or the panels and inverter
A balcony kit is modules plus a micro-inverter plus the cable between them. Sometimes a mount, often not, and the individual page says which.
What to check: the inverter output, the module count, and whether a mount is included. Two kits at the same price can differ by a complete mounting system.
2. The micro-inverter, if it is not in the kit
One inverter per panel or per pair. A shaded module drops only its own output instead of dragging a string down, and the high-voltage direct current run disappears entirely — which is what made plug-in installations feasible in the first place.
What to check: the input window per channel, the output ceiling, and the grid standard it declares.
3. The mount
Now, and not before. The panel dimensions are known at this point and they are the whole compatibility question.
For a railing: the hook opening, measured against the railing profile with a tape. For a flat roof: whether it is ballasted or drilled, and how much ballast it takes.
Across every mount in this catalogue, none publishes a wind load. That is worth knowing and it is not a reason to pick one over another — it is a reason to ask the seller.
4. The cable
Measured, not estimated. From where the panel actually ends up to where the socket actually is, with slack for the route round the door frame.
Certified cable — H1Z2Z2-K to EN 50618 — costs a little more and is specified for the ultraviolet a balcony run gets.
5. The meter
The one purchase that tells you whether any of this worked.
A plug-in meter that measures feed-in as well as consumption is the one that suits a balcony installation; an ordinary one measures the wrong direction and reports nothing useful.
What this guide does not decide
Whether you may install it, and at what power. That is set by the grid rules and the building rules where you are, and no product page — including these — is the authority on it.
