On linear combinations of units with bounded coefficients and double-base digit expansions.

Let [Formula: see text] be the maximal order of a number field. Belcher showed in the 1970s that every algebraic integer in [Formula: see text] is the sum of pairwise distinct units, if the unit equation [Formula: see text] has a non-trivial solution [Formula: see text]. We generalize this result and give applications to signed double-base digit expansions.