Spent some time today doing a bit of research on wallboxes. It’s probably a few years down the road before I’ll actually need one, but I wanted to get a rough idea of the cost, installation complexity, and overall hassle factor. Unfortunately, my PV company just brought me crashing back to reality.
So, apparently, there’s this new thing in Germany —the Energy Industry Act, Paragraph 14a. What a mouthful! I have to hear it multiple times before it sticks in my mental cache.
What Is §14a All About?
Paragraph 14a of the Energiewirtschaftsgesetz (EnWG) regulates the grid-oriented operation of controllable electrical consumers — devices like heat pumps, EV chargers, or home batteries. The goal is to prevent grid overloads and keep the power network stable.
In simple terms: grid operators can temporarily control or limit the output of these devices during peak demand, but they must offer discounted network fees or other incentives in return.
(Just my opinion… but if the government’s planning to remotely dial down high-power devices, then the grid’s about to enter a whole new era — and I, for one, will be happy to have some kind of backup power on standby.)
Mandatory – But With a Bonus
This regulation has now become mandatory for new installations. The good news: compliance is rewarded with up to €190 per year off your grid fees. A small silver lining — or let’s call it a power-saver cookie.
Wi-Fi? Nope. Cable Required.
Then came the kicker. My PV company casually mentioned that this setup can’t be done via Wi-Fi — it requires an additional data cable.
And I thought: “Perfect… another hole through my house wall.” One more cable between the electrical cabinet and the garage. More costs. More drilling. And, of course, another round of sealing the wall to keep those invasive street ants from turning my basement into an ant farm. Ah, I forgot to mention — there’s already a high-voltage power line in the garage. It was installed when the house was built, of course.
The Redemption of My Inner Network Nerd
Luckily, in my early career years I spent quite a few years working in network engineering- constantly on the phone with frustrated customers complaining about slow connections. That experience left its mark — literally. Personally, I find Wi-Fi sexy, sleek, and super convenient. But if you need to move a lot of data reliably and without dropouts, there’s just no way around using cables. As the old saying goes: the best Wi-Fi optimization is plugging in a cable.
Back when we built the house, I went full network-nerd and wired it like a Swiss cheese full of Ethernet holes from top to bottom. Every room, every corner — CAT cables everywhere.
And unlike anyone else in the neighborhood, I even had the foresight to install an Ethernet port in the garage, directly connected to my basement switch. It felt kind of embarrassing at the time. I wasn’t thinking about §14a — I was just dreaming of a future electric car that might someday need a stable wired connection for a firmware update too flaky for Wi-Fi.
And Now… That Cable Saves the Day
As it turns out, that LAN cable can now be reused for §14a compliance. How poetic is that?
If the existing high-voltage power line to the garage also meets the technical specs (which my electrician is currently checking), then nothing should stand in the way of installing a wallbox — and most importantly, no more core drilling through my house walls!
The Little Annoyances
Unfortunately, unlike other PV components, the wallbox is not exempt from VAT. And the dream of using your EV battery as a backup power source for your house — feeding electricity back to run your heat pump, for example — is still more of a prototype fantasy than a consumer reality. But the idea of being able to pull power back from your fully charged car when you don’t need it, turning it into a temporary home battery, is just too cool to ignore — and the exciting part is, this technology isn’t far off anymore. It’s right on the edge of becoming market-ready.
For context: a mid-sized EV like the Tesla Model 3 has around 60 kWh of battery capacity. That’s enough to power our household for several days — several times more than our basement battery storage.
Conclusion
Solar energy and electricity remain endlessly fascinating for me — but as I’ve learned yet again, they’re not quite as plug-and-play as one might hope.