Ikea arranges balcony power plants – Is it worth it?

Balcony power plants help to reduce electricity bills and generate some of the electricity you use yourself from renewable energy sources in an environmentally friendly way. Now Ikea is also jumping on the bandwagon and expanding its previous collaboration with Svea Solar: Interested parties can now also order balcony power plants from a partner company of the Swedish furniture store.

The plug-in solar systems are not available in the furniture stores themselves, but Ikea merely acts as an intermediary in the Svea Solar webshop. There, Ikea Family or Ikea Business Network members can receive a 15 percent discount on the balcony power plants by entering their membership number.

Ikea balcony power plants: Attractive offers?

Directly pre-configured, there is initially an offer consisting of two solar panels and an inverter with free delivery. The “Stream” inverter delivers a standard-compliant 800 [watts], while the 450 [watt] “Rigid Solar” solar panels are already equipped with 1.1 [meter] long cables with MC4 plugs for connection to the micro inverter. Svea Solar does not specify the length of the cable for connecting the inverter to the socket. There is a choice of brackets from 30 euros extra. Without the bracket, the package starts at just under 450 euros.

Svea Solar wants 1430 euros for a system with four solar panels with 250 watts of power each and a Stream solar battery with 1920 Wh capacity. The latter contains an inverter that can collect up to 2000 watts from the solar panels and output 800 watts at the output. This is how much power the devices are allowed to feed into the grid in Germany. According to further information on the website, the “Stream Ultra Battery” can deliver up to 1200 watts on the AC side –. It may have a built-in socket to which consumers can be connected directly. A data sheet or detailed photos cannot be found in the online store.

Technically comparable offers, for example with 900 watt solar panels and micro inverters with 800 watt output power, can be found at one of the largest online retailers from just under 230 euros, also without additional shipping costs. Single panels can even be found in a double pack for around 110 Euro, Hoymiles inverters with 800 Watt output power from 90 Euro, each including shipping, on the Internet – if you look at the cents and don't shy away from different suppliers, you can get a balcony power station with comparable key data for even less.

Balcony power plants with storage systems of similar dimensions to the Ikea/Svea solar offer can also be found at one of the largest mail order companies at a significantly lower price. At the time of reporting, systems with just under 2000 watts with four solar panels, 800 watt inverters and 2240 Wh storage units are available there for around 650 euros, without additional shipping costs. On closer inspection, the Ikea offers are therefore not worthwhile, even with the discount for Ikea Family or Business Network members.

The trend towards balcony power stations continues unabated. For around two weeks now, beyond one million balcony power plants have been registered in Germany in the Federal Network Agency's Market Master Data Register (MaStR).

(dmk)