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Twenty four US states are now considering legislation to allow small, plug-in solar power systems that connect directly into a wall socket. (www.nytimes.com)

submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by silence7@slrpnk.net to c/energy@slrpnk.net

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I'm a little wary of plug-in solar in the US. Some of the bills propose allowing 1200 watt panels which can overload wiring depending on what else is on the circuit and how in the wall wiring is run. Limiting plug-in panel wattage to, say, 400 watts might be necessary

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[–] spinne@sh.itjust.works 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

A quick way to stop the use of cheap and unsafe products is to introduce legislation that has safety standards and a certification body like UL that they have to meet before they can be sold.

I totally agree that we have to put in some serious effort to make this a safe and workable thing. I'm not on the libertarian side of things where it's like, "Pshh! Get the products out there and let the market figure it out!" because... I mean, geez, our housing situation is bad enough without burning down any more of them. But we do need the legislation to get us some movement. We need safe, reliable products that can at least compare with a first model year car in terms of operability and not perfection. We're more than a decade behind in this area, we're losing more ground by the day, our government is doing whatever illegal shit they can think of to try to stop it entirely, and we can't afford this.

[–] cynar@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

I fully agree. It's the same over here in the UK.

The key is to get a (semi global) get of regulations in play asap. If China can't sell them, then they won't make the lower quality products. Unfortunately, getting them back out of circulation will be a LOT harder. The safety rules need to go in early.