Extra Power From Balcony Solar: Where It Goes, Who Pays

Extra power from balcony solar flows out through your electric meter onto the grid, where your nearest neighbors use it. In most US states with a plug-in solar law, you aren’t paid a cent for it. Whether your meter spins backwards, records the export or bills it as usage depends on the type of meter you have.

Your home always uses the solar power first. Only what’s left over leaves the building, and on a sunny weekday with nobody home, that can be most of the day’s output.

Where does extra power from balcony solar go?

Extra power from balcony solar goes out through your meter and into the local grid, where the homes closest to you use it. Electricity takes the path of least resistance, as Solar United Neighbors puts it.

Here’s the order of events while the sun is up:

Your kit makes power. The microinverter feeds AC power into the outlet’s circuit.
Your home uses it first. The fridge, router and anything else running draw from the solar power before the grid.
The surplus leaves. Anything your home isn’t using at that moment passes back through the meter.
Neighbors use it. The power serves nearby loads on the same lines.

That export is normal and safe while the grid is live. The dangerous case is power flowing onto lines during an outage, which certified kits block; our backfeed guide covers how inverters shut off. For the basics of the kit itself, start with how balcony solar works.

Do you get paid for surplus power?

You usually don’t get paid for surplus power from a plug-in kit. Most state plug-in solar laws carve these devices out of net metering, so exported power earns no bill credit. EnergySage says the same: no net metering and no state or local incentives.

Here’s what the state laws say about exported power:

State	What happens to exported power
Virginia	Chapter 1052 excludes plug-in devices from net metering
Maryland	Chapter 353: not part of net metering, no renewable energy credits
Utah	HB 340: not part of net metering
Vermont	S.202: can’t be net metered; exported power isn’t paid for
Maine	LD 1730: can’t be used for net energy billing
New Jersey	S2368: exempt from net metering, no credits
New York (SUNNY Act)	S8512: unpaid unless you voluntarily sign a net metering or other compensation agreement
Connecticut	HB 5340: the device must warn that excess power will be billed as usage unless your meter allows net metering

Connecticut’s rule is the one to read twice. On the wrong meter, exported power can show up on your bill as power you used.

Germany works the same way by default. The Bundesnetzagentur, the federal grid regulator, says the operator of a plug-in device gets no feed-in payment in the standard case. You can claim the regular feed-in tariff after a two-way meter goes in, but then the simplified plug-in rules no longer apply.

Does balcony solar make your electric meter spin backwards?

Balcony solar makes your electric meter spin backwards only if you have an old electromechanical meter with no reverse lock. Most US homes now have digital smart meters, which don’t spin at all. They either log exported power in a separate register or, depending on setup, add it to your usage.

The EIA counted about 119 million smart meter (AMI) installations in 2022, equal to about 72% of all US electric meters. AMI meters record usage at least hourly.

Meter type	What it does with reverse flow	What it means for you
Old electromechanical (spinning disc)	Can turn backwards and subtract from your reading	Looks like free credit, but your utility didn’t agree to it
Digital meter set up for net metering	Records export separately, for example as “REC”	Export is logged, but plug-in kits usually earn nothing for it
Digital meter not set up for export	May count the exported power as usage	You could pay for power you gave away (Connecticut’s warning)

San Diego Gas & Electric shows how a net-metering smart meter behaves. On its display, the bars run right to left when the meter is running backwards, and received power carries the label “REC.” The meter shows only what flowed back to the grid, not your total solar production.

How Germany handles old Ferraris meters

Germany’s rules deal directly with old spinning-disc meters, called Ferraris meters, and accept a backwards-running one only as a short stopgap.

Under Section 10a of the EEG, a kit may run on the existing meter until the metering operator fits a two-way or smart meter, and the old readings count as correct until then. The Bundesnetzagentur calls this a temporary, tolerated billing on unsuitable readings. It says the period should last weeks, at most a few months, and not years.

HTW Berlin’s 2022 survey report adds the practical side. Old Ferraris meters risk running backwards, and grid operators replace them once a kit is registered, which some charge for.

Vermont’s smart-meter rule

Vermont settles the meter question up front. Its S.202 lets you connect a plug-in device only where there’s a smart meter, and the device must be UL 3700 certified. It also bars plug-in devices from net metering and doesn’t pay for exported power.

How much of a balcony kit’s power is surplus?

On average, roughly half of a balcony kit’s output is surplus. Germany’s environment agency, the UBA, estimates that a household uses about 45 percent of an 800 W vertical kit’s output at the moment it’s made, without a battery. That’s 240 kWh of the kit’s 532 kWh a year.

By my math, that leaves 292 kWh a year, or 55 percent, flowing out to the grid. HTW Berlin’s survey points the same way. Of plug-in owners asked, 71 percent said unused solar power flows into the grid, and HTW concluded the real share is higher than reported. True zero export, it notes, needs a very high base load or a digital energy management system.

Your own share depends on when you’re home and which way the panels face. Our panel direction guide shows how east or west panels shift output toward mornings or evenings.

Worked example: an 800 W kit on a sunny weekday while you’re out

On a clear weekday with nobody home, an 800 W kit in New York City exports about two-thirds of its output. I modeled it with hourly data rather than an average:

Output: PVGIS hourly data for New York City in 2015, 800 W of panels facing south at a 35-degree tilt. The sunniest summer weekday was Thursday, May 14, 2015, at about 5.0 kWh.
Your home’s load while out: a steady 164 W, the average always-on load an NRDC study measured across 70,000 California homes.
Hours out: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

By my math, the kit made 4.8 kWh while you were out. Your always-on devices used 1.6 kWh of it (164 W for 10 hours). The other 3.2 kWh went out to the grid, about 63 percent of the whole day’s output.

Output passed 164 W from the 8 a.m. hour on and peaked near 645 W in the early afternoon. So the kit was exporting for the entire time you were gone. At the EIA’s August 2026 US average price of 18.16 cents per kWh, by my math that’s about 58 cents of power given away in one day.

How to waste less of your surplus

You waste less surplus by using power when the sun is up or by storing it. Both work; shifting loads costs nothing.

Run big loads at midday. Set the dishwasher, washing machine or dryer delay timer to finish around 1 p.m., the peak hour in the example above.
Charge things in daylight. Laptops, phones, e-bikes and power tool batteries can soak up surplus.
Pick a direction that matches your day. If you’re out until evening, a west-facing kit makes more of its power when you’re back.
Add a battery. A plug-in battery stores the surplus for the evening, but you lose some of it. HTW Berlin’s simulator model assumes an AC system efficiency of 82.5 percent. By my math, storing the 3.2 kWh from the example gives back about 2.6 kWh.
Size the kit to your base load. If you’re rarely home in the day, a smaller kit exports less of what you paid for.

My take: if you’re out all day, shift loads first and treat a battery as a later upgrade. In the example, a dishwasher on a delay timer recovers part of that surplus for free, while a battery costs real money and still loses about a sixth. Our worth-it guide runs through who comes out ahead.

What this example can’t tell you

The worked example is one clear day in one city, so treat it as an illustration, not a forecast. Cloudy days, shade and a vertical railing mount all cut output.

The 164 W load is also an average from California homes. Your fridge cycling on, a home office or a pet’s heat lamp would raise your daytime use and cut your export. Before you buy, check your state’s rules on our balcony solar laws by state page, and ask your utility what kind of meter you have.

FAQ

Does your meter go backwards with balcony solar?

Only an old electromechanical meter can. Digital and smart meters usually record exported power in a separate register, and some count it as usage. Germany tolerates backwards-running old meters only until the grid operator swaps them, which should take weeks or a few months.

Why is my electricity meter running backwards?

Your solar kit is making more power than your home is using at that moment, and the surplus is flowing out to the grid. An older meter without a reverse lock turns backwards when that happens. Tell your utility rather than banking on it.

Do you get paid for extra power from balcony solar?

Usually not. Virginia, Maryland, Utah, Vermont, Maine and New Jersey keep plug-in kits out of net metering, and New York’s SUNNY Act pays nothing unless you sign a separate compensation agreement.

What happens to extra solar power when the battery is full?

It flows out to the grid like any other surplus, unless the system is set up to cut its output. HTW Berlin notes that true zero export needs a very high base load or a digital energy management system.

What Happens to Extra Power From a Balcony Solar Panel?