Con­grat­u­la­tions to you! With the pur­chase of your Solar­na­tive bal­cony pow­er plant, you have become a part of the ener­gy tran­si­tion and are per­son­al­ly con­tribut­ing to decar­boniza­tion. You will soon be pro­duc­ing your own elec­tric­i­ty — inde­pen­dent­ly, free of charge and green! But — first things first — your new plug-in solar sys­tem needs to be set up first. Don’t wor­ry: it’s real­ly easy! You can install the Solar­na­tive com­po­nents and do the wiring on your own; it is advis­able to get a helper at your side to attach the solar mod­ules. With the fol­low­ing step-by-step instruc­tions, installing your bal­cony pow­er plant is child’s play!

1. Prepa­ra­tion
2. Mount­ing the Pow­er­Stick Balcony
3. Step by step instruction

Install the Solar­na­tive app on your smart­phone and set up your user account.

Check that all Solar­na­tive com­po­nents have been cor­rect­ly supplied:

• One Pow­er­Stick Bal­cony per PV module
• One Intel­li­Gate Bal­cony includ­ing end cap
• One Con­nec­tion cable per PV mod­ule (dif­fer­ent lengths if necessary)

Depend­ing on the type of instal­la­tion, mount­ing mate­ri­als for the solar mod­ules and the appro­pri­ate tools are required. To install the Solar­na­tive Pow­er­Stick, all you need is an M8 screw and the appro­pri­ate open-end wrench and/or Allen key. Also have a small slot­ted screw­driv­er to hand in case you need to loosen a plug con­nec­tion dur­ing installation.

Due to its unique design and low weight, the Pow­er­Stick Bal­cony can be attached to the frame of the solar mod­ule. From a frame width of 32 mm, the hous­ing body of the Pow­er­Stick Bal­cony can be installed fac­ing the mod­ule (Solar­na­tive let­ter­ing leg­i­ble); for nar­row­er frames, the hous­ing body must be installed fac­ing away from the mod­ule (Solar­na­tive let­ter­ing mir­ror-invert­ed). To avoid dam­ag­ing the mod­ule, it is always impor­tant that the invert­er nev­er touch­es the back of the module.
Attach the Pow­er­Stick Bal­cony to the mod­ule frame using an M8 screw with wash­er and a suit­able flange nut. Use one of the exist­ing frame holes and ensure that the holes required for mount­ing the mod­ule on the bal­cony or sub­struc­ture remain free.

If you have pur­chased a sub­struc­ture for mount­ing the solar mod­ule that pro­vides a suit­able loca­tion for attach­ing the invert­er, you can attach the Solar­na­tive Pow­er­Stick here using an M8 screw, a wash­er and the appro­pri­ate nut. To avoid dam­age, make sure that the invert­er does not touch the back of the mod­ule when using this instal­la­tion method.

Alter­na­tive­ly, the Pow­er­Stick Bal­cony can be attached to the exist­ing struc­tur­al ele­ments of the bal­cony, such as the rail­ing. Depend­ing on the mate­r­i­al and con­di­tion, M8 screws and nuts, self-tap­ping screws or UV-resis­tant cable ties can be used. Make sure that the invert­er can­not come loose on its own and that the device is pro­tect­ed from the sun and weather.

Con­nect the MC4 con­nec­tors of the Pow­er­Stick Bal­cony to the match­ing con­nec­tors of the solar mod­ule. The Solar­na­tive Pow­er­Stick Bal­cony is com­pat­i­ble with the Stäubli MC4 and Stäubli MC4-Evo 2 mod­ule con­nec­tors. If you are unsure, check the data sheet for your solar module.

When attach­ing the Pow­er­Stick Bal­cony on the mod­ule frame oder on the sub­struc­ture firm­ly bolt­ed to the mod­ule this step should be car­ried out before attach­ing the mod­ule to the balcony.
If the invert­er is installed on the bal­cony rail­ing is still acces­si­ble after the solar mod­ule has been installed, it may make sense to con­nect the MC4 con­nec­tors later.

Con­nect two Pow­er­Stick Bal­cony units with a con­nect­ing cable of the appro­pri­ate length. Always lis­ten for the click­ing sound when snap­ping in the connectors.
This step is not nec­es­sary for sys­tems with only one Pow­er­Stick Balcony.

Close the last Pow­er­Stick Bal­cony with the Solar­na­tive end cap. Lis­ten for the click­ing sound when the end cap clicks into place.

Con­nect the first Pow­er­Stick Bal­cony in the string to the Intel­li­Gate Bal­cony using a con­nect­ing cable of a suit­able length. Lis­ten for the click­ing sound when plug­ging in.

Check the LED on the side with the bright-coloured con­nec­tor for each Pow­er­Stick Bal­cony. The fol­low­ing oper­at­ing states may be present:

• BLINKS (30s.): Nor­mal operation
• BLINKS (1s.): No pow­er feed. Wait­ing for grid con­nec­tion. Mains sig­nal is miss­ing or out­side the nor­mal range.
• ON: Invert­er fault
• OFF: Invert­er off (night, snow, dirt) or with­out func­tion (defec­tive)

If one of the invert­ers is with­out func­tion for a longer peri­od of time (LED does not light up), please con­tact our cus­tomer ser­vice.

Use cable ties to secure loose cable parts or excess cable lengths to the balcony’s sub­struc­ture or struc­tur­al ele­ments. Lay and fix the con­nec­tion cables in such a way that the con­nec­tors are not sub­ject­ed to any ten­sile or bend­ing loads.

If you have not yet down­loaded the Solar­na­tive app and set up your user account, please do so now. You can then put your bal­cony pow­er plant into oper­a­tion. To do this, scan the QR code on the Intel­li­Gate Bal­cony and fol­low the fur­ther steps to set up the sys­tem in the app.

If you ever need to take your Solar­na­tive bal­cony pow­er sta­tion out of oper­a­tion — for exam­ple when mov­ing house or ren­o­vat­ing — always dis­con­nect the Schuko plug on the Intel­li­Gate Bal­cony from the sock­et first. The sys­tem is de-ener­gized after 0.2 sec­onds. If nec­es­sary, you can then dis­con­nect all oth­er plug connections.

You can find use­ful infor­ma­tion and per­son­al assis­tance in our ser­vice area.