Comparison test
Stiftung Warentest tests balcony power plants – only one gets the grade “good”
If you have a place in the sun, you can generate electricity comparatively easily with a balcony power plant.
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If you have a sunny spot left on the roof or on the balcony railing, you can use a balcony power plant to generate additional electricity and reduce electricity costs in the long term. Warentest tested eight models and came to a sobering conclusion.
The theory sounds very simple: hang up solar panels, plug them into the socket and every hour of sunshine the balcony power plant generates valuable electricity for your own household. Once the costs of the system have been recouped, you can only win. It is therefore hardly surprising that balcony power plants are a popular purchase for many households, especially in spring and summer. But which system should it be? The selection is huge, the often Chinese company names form a thicket of unknown companies. Stiftung Warentest sheds some light on the darkness with a current comparison.
Discontinued models can be worthwhile
The bad news first: If you want to buy the test winner, you’ll have to search for a long time, if you can find it at all. The 830-watt balcony power plant from EPP Solar, a discontinued model, was the only product to receive a grade of “good” (2.2) and was particularly impressive in the stability and safety categories. But it is no longer available – at least not from the manufacturer or in common price search engines.
A balcony power plant with 860 watts is currently available from the manufacturer EPP Solar, in which the panels and the inverter have at least the same manufacturer as the test winner. However, since these are slightly different models, the Stiftung Warentest result probably does not apply one-to-one to the successor.
In the new model, panels with the designation work Sunpro 430W M10 N Type (SPDG430-N108M10) and an 800W Deye WIFI inverter, model DEYE-800-G4. According to Warentest, the test winning set uses the Deye SUN-M80G3-EU-Q0 inverter model and the panels are YH Sunpro Power SP415-108M10, each with 415 watts.
Stability is so important for a balcony power plant because it is constantly exposed to the weather. Snow, wind and hail in particular can affect the huge panels in the long term, meaning that the investment no longer pays off as quickly as damage can result that costs money. EPP is also one of the few manufacturers that has electromagnetic compatibility to some extent under control. According to the testers, many inverters in balcony power plants can seriously disrupt other devices in the area, such as WiFi routers or radios.
By the way: No balcony power plant works well in the shade. This shouldn’t surprise anyone, but even the best products in the test didn’t get beyond “satisfactory” in this category. The effectiveness of a balcony power plant depends primarily on its position. If you block the clear view of the sky for any reason, the yield plummets. Expensive panels or particularly luxurious sets don’t help either.
It barely missed a “good” rating in the test Set of Absaar. With an overall grade of “satisfactory” (2.6) and prices currently starting at around 600 euros, the balcony power plant is still a good choice in comparison. There were deductions for an “adequate” instruction manual and not-so-easy assembly.
Three balcony power plants “inadequate”
Three power plants received a “poor” rating in the test. The manufacturers Maxxisun, “PV and SO” and Yuma were unable to avoid a significant devaluation due to a “poor” rating in the “electromagnetic compatibility” category. The product from “PV and SO” also broke during the compression load test and the panels from Maxxisun were noticeable due to corrosion at the ends of the steel rail.
Stiftung Warentest explains that a balcony power plant can pay for itself after just five years, depending on the purchase costs, funding, yield and electricity used. But this also shows that the actual savings are not so great that you should immediately expect large savings on electricity costs. But one thing is certain: as soon as the sun is shining, a balcony power plant can provide considerable support to the electricity budget.
You can take the complete test for a fee test.de read up.
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