20 ms·

The real question is why would I go with a Tesla solar roof? I think getting a roof-mounted one is probably cheaper and has less vendor lock-in.

anonporridge 6y ago
I actually think part of Tesla's strategy is to make green tech more palatable for the conservative crowd. Their whole line of cars highlights power, performance, luxury, and the cool factor. They've almost single-handedly destroyed the conception that EVs are sad little suped up golf carts for tree hugging dweebs. You're almost a loser if you don't have a Tesla now. The cybertruck is another big play on this trend. The solar roof is another take on this. Make solar look like regular shingles and along with the amortized cost savings, people resistant to change really don't have a good argument against it, whereas they might for an installment of obvious panels.
powerapple 6y ago
The look of Tesla solar roof is a lot nicer than a roof mounted solar panel to be honest. It is the premium some people are willing to pay for. It would be a personal choice kind of thing. I definitely can understand it. People spend twice or more money on a logo on a T shirt every day.
01100011 6y ago
I wonder if the Tesla roof keeps your attic as cool as solar panels do? I swear I felt my house was cooler from having the panels.
- raverbashing 6y ago
  Probably not since they replace the tiles. If you have a conventional roof solar panel there's a small gap between the roof and the panels. So effectively your roof is on the shadows of the panel (Also some of the light that would heat it is turning into electricity, so maybe there is a small temperature difference there)
  - rainbowzootsuit 6y ago
    I worked for a solar installer company for a while last year and we were doing a training in preparation for building out our first installation of a Tesla solar roof. I didn't participate in the build, but was helping the installers with the training. To your supposition about the construction and shading, the solar roof tiles are tempered glass plates with clips that mate with plastic standoff roof mounts, so there is a ~35mm air gap beneath the tiles and the roof membrane. This is the pathway that the electrical cables route to interconnect the tiles and other needed electrical appurtenances like electric feed-throughs, mppt devices and inline disconnects to satisfy newer NEC rules about the maximum string voltage in a system shutdown. The clip in design also allows for individual tiles to be removed and replaced without disturbing those around them, although scaling a glass roof sounds harrowing. I will say that the roof quality needed to execute the solar roofing system was intense. There was very little affordance for shimming the tiles into the plane, which seemed a oversight in design. The whole roof deck needed to be coplanar to (going from memory) ~1". In our area this would be rare to find houses with this quality of roof deck, requiring significant reworking to rip the decking and shim the supporting structure from below. Our housing stock is old. The estimated installation time was on the order of 10X of a traditional above-the-roof solar system at weeks vs ~2 days. The install really needed people with the skills of a roofer, which wasn't a significant overlap with the skills of a normal roof working solar installer.
    - 01100011 6y ago
      Interesting. I wonder if the seismic requirements change as well. I'd think with such tight tolerances you'd have problems with flexing from even a modest quake.
      - rainbowzootsuit 6y ago
        I think that the reason for the coplanar requirements is that the tiles lap each other in the up-down slope direction, but only abut one another in the perpendicular. There's no interleaving or joining or flashing in that direction. Two abutting panels land into the same clip. Around penetrations and edges there are non-pv fractional tiles, and all of the ends edges and ridges etc are done with sheet metal. Leaving too much gap will get stuff underneath the tiles and also make them more susceptible to being removed by wind or exposure of the membrane to UV and other things it's not tolerant of. The real waterproofing layer is the membrane that's put down first. There are higher numbers of clips on the panels/tiles for high wind areas. If I was baller enough to afford this I would definitely invest in a continuous insulation roofing system to go on first.
bmh 6y ago
I live in South Africa, where we have periodic rolling blackouts, so we're highly incentivized to insulate ourselves from that. I installed 2kW of panels on my roof myself, and inverter, and batteries, for a total of about $2700. The price of US solar installations seems incredibly high. Also, with a 2 storey house, it's hard to see the panels even if you try.
- fy20 6y ago
  > The price of US solar installations seems incredibly high. This is the real story here, and it seems like people are blind to it. Compared to everywhere else in the world, solar prices in the US are ridiculously expensive. I'm based in Europe, and in January obtained quotes for a 10kW roof mount system to be installed. The most expensive quote I received was for €9,500. That's for all equipment, installation, taxes, and guarantee - and before government incentives (30%). The actual equipment would be less than €5,000 if you were to DIY the install, so even with that the installer is making a healthy profit. I frequent /r/solar, and the prices I see people say they are quoted are mind bogling. For the same thing they are receiving quotes of $50k or more. Now admittedly I live in a lower cost of living European country, but I've read prices in Germany are very similar - and that is where all the equipment installers here use comes from anyway. Some of the reasons people give are because electrical equipment needs to be upgraded. Ok, that might cost a little more, but not $40,000. The quote I received was for a new build. It cost us under €1,000 to have the electricity company bring in the supply and install a cabinet and meter on our plot (it was empty before). That included digging up the road, and connecting to overhead wires nearby.
- baybal2 6y ago
  > The price of US solar installations seems incredibly high. The price of US installation includes very well paid, and very well fed $200k a year electricians scaling your roof.
hellbannedguy 6y ago
Right now Tesla roofs are for the wealthy, but I see that changing in a few years. I need to replace my roof. I'm a contractor so I know how to do it. I'm getting older though, and procrastinating. My fear is the physical work, but that's another story. I've looked into asphalt, and shingle. I'll most likely go with asphalt shingles because of the cost. I figure if I procrastonate another few years, I might be able to put solar shingles up? I'm glad Musk got the solar shingles rolling. I'm suprised other companies haven't ventured into solar shingles. And honestly, the electricty/green aspect is not my concern. I can't really afford to be green, but if I could put up a water tight reasonably priced roof--I'd go with paying a bit more than shingles that produce free electricity. (If anyone at a Musk industries reads this; there are many DIY guys out there. Put up some good installation videos of roofing, and of course, your product. Make them so detailed, the average DIY'er might attempt the job? Take into account many people might used the solar shingles, but not have the battery, and controls. I might put up the shingles, and wait for the battery costs to come down. At some point, every building will need roof. It's a huge market.
- fakedang 6y ago
  >I'm suprised other companies haven't ventured into solar shingles. This pretty much. Are other American roofing companies plain fucking stupid? For all the competition spiel in America, there really isn't much to show for it.
  - birdyrooster 6y ago
    Might be the market is showing that solar shingles are stupid like solar roadways when compared to the alternatives. But solar shingles does sound cool.
    - tgsovlerkhgsel 6y ago
      Dumb question: Couldn't you build a roof from plain old solar panels, somehow sealed together? Put them next to each other with sealant in between horizontally, shingled vertically (this also allows you to have a drainage hole in the bottom of each panel if needed).

anonporridge 6y ago

I actually think part of Tesla's strategy is to make green tech more palatable for the conservative crowd. Their whole line of cars highlights power, performance, luxury, and the cool factor. They've almost single-handedly destroyed the conception that EVs are sad little suped up golf carts for tree hugging dweebs. You're almost a loser if you don't have a Tesla now. The cybertruck is another big play on this trend. The solar roof is another take on this. Make solar look like regular shingles and along with the amortized cost savings, people resistant to change really don't have a good argument against it, whereas they might for an installment of obvious panels.

powerapple 6y ago

The look of Tesla solar roof is a lot nicer than a roof mounted solar panel to be honest. It is the premium some people are willing to pay for. It would be a personal choice kind of thing. I definitely can understand it. People spend twice or more money on a logo on a T shirt every day.

01100011 6y ago

I wonder if the Tesla roof keeps your attic as cool as solar panels do? I swear I felt my house was cooler from having the panels.

raverbashing 6y ago
Probably not since they replace the tiles. If you have a conventional roof solar panel there's a small gap between the roof and the panels. So effectively your roof is on the shadows of the panel (Also some of the light that would heat it is turning into electricity, so maybe there is a small temperature difference there)
- rainbowzootsuit 6y ago
  I worked for a solar installer company for a while last year and we were doing a training in preparation for building out our first installation of a Tesla solar roof. I didn't participate in the build, but was helping the installers with the training. To your supposition about the construction and shading, the solar roof tiles are tempered glass plates with clips that mate with plastic standoff roof mounts, so there is a ~35mm air gap beneath the tiles and the roof membrane. This is the pathway that the electrical cables route to interconnect the tiles and other needed electrical appurtenances like electric feed-throughs, mppt devices and inline disconnects to satisfy newer NEC rules about the maximum string voltage in a system shutdown. The clip in design also allows for individual tiles to be removed and replaced without disturbing those around them, although scaling a glass roof sounds harrowing. I will say that the roof quality needed to execute the solar roofing system was intense. There was very little affordance for shimming the tiles into the plane, which seemed a oversight in design. The whole roof deck needed to be coplanar to (going from memory) ~1". In our area this would be rare to find houses with this quality of roof deck, requiring significant reworking to rip the decking and shim the supporting structure from below. Our housing stock is old. The estimated installation time was on the order of 10X of a traditional above-the-roof solar system at weeks vs ~2 days. The install really needed people with the skills of a roofer, which wasn't a significant overlap with the skills of a normal roof working solar installer.
  - 01100011 6y ago
    Interesting. I wonder if the seismic requirements change as well. I'd think with such tight tolerances you'd have problems with flexing from even a modest quake.
    - rainbowzootsuit 6y ago
      I think that the reason for the coplanar requirements is that the tiles lap each other in the up-down slope direction, but only abut one another in the perpendicular. There's no interleaving or joining or flashing in that direction. Two abutting panels land into the same clip. Around penetrations and edges there are non-pv fractional tiles, and all of the ends edges and ridges etc are done with sheet metal. Leaving too much gap will get stuff underneath the tiles and also make them more susceptible to being removed by wind or exposure of the membrane to UV and other things it's not tolerant of. The real waterproofing layer is the membrane that's put down first. There are higher numbers of clips on the panels/tiles for high wind areas. If I was baller enough to afford this I would definitely invest in a continuous insulation roofing system to go on first.

bmh 6y ago

I live in South Africa, where we have periodic rolling blackouts, so we're highly incentivized to insulate ourselves from that. I installed 2kW of panels on my roof myself, and inverter, and batteries, for a total of about $2700. The price of US solar installations seems incredibly high. Also, with a 2 storey house, it's hard to see the panels even if you try.

fy20 6y ago
> The price of US solar installations seems incredibly high. This is the real story here, and it seems like people are blind to it. Compared to everywhere else in the world, solar prices in the US are ridiculously expensive. I'm based in Europe, and in January obtained quotes for a 10kW roof mount system to be installed. The most expensive quote I received was for €9,500. That's for all equipment, installation, taxes, and guarantee - and before government incentives (30%). The actual equipment would be less than €5,000 if you were to DIY the install, so even with that the installer is making a healthy profit. I frequent /r/solar, and the prices I see people say they are quoted are mind bogling. For the same thing they are receiving quotes of $50k or more. Now admittedly I live in a lower cost of living European country, but I've read prices in Germany are very similar - and that is where all the equipment installers here use comes from anyway. Some of the reasons people give are because electrical equipment needs to be upgraded. Ok, that might cost a little more, but not $40,000. The quote I received was for a new build. It cost us under €1,000 to have the electricity company bring in the supply and install a cabinet and meter on our plot (it was empty before). That included digging up the road, and connecting to overhead wires nearby.
baybal2 6y ago
> The price of US solar installations seems incredibly high. The price of US installation includes very well paid, and very well fed $200k a year electricians scaling your roof.

hellbannedguy 6y ago

Right now Tesla roofs are for the wealthy, but I see that changing in a few years. I need to replace my roof. I'm a contractor so I know how to do it. I'm getting older though, and procrastinating. My fear is the physical work, but that's another story. I've looked into asphalt, and shingle. I'll most likely go with asphalt shingles because of the cost. I figure if I procrastonate another few years, I might be able to put solar shingles up? I'm glad Musk got the solar shingles rolling. I'm suprised other companies haven't ventured into solar shingles. And honestly, the electricty/green aspect is not my concern. I can't really afford to be green, but if I could put up a water tight reasonably priced roof--I'd go with paying a bit more than shingles that produce free electricity. (If anyone at a Musk industries reads this; there are many DIY guys out there. Put up some good installation videos of roofing, and of course, your product. Make them so detailed, the average DIY'er might attempt the job? Take into account many people might used the solar shingles, but not have the battery, and controls. I might put up the shingles, and wait for the battery costs to come down. At some point, every building will need roof. It's a huge market.

fakedang 6y ago
>I'm suprised other companies haven't ventured into solar shingles. This pretty much. Are other American roofing companies plain fucking stupid? For all the competition spiel in America, there really isn't much to show for it.
- birdyrooster 6y ago
  Might be the market is showing that solar shingles are stupid like solar roadways when compared to the alternatives. But solar shingles does sound cool.
  - tgsovlerkhgsel 6y ago
    Dumb question: Couldn't you build a roof from plain old solar panels, somehow sealed together? Put them next to each other with sealant in between horizontally, shingled vertically (this also allows you to have a drainage hole in the bottom of each panel if needed).