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Project Sunroof

google.com

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Re: Project Sunroof

#41

Post by bri3d »

melling wrote: post #22
shogun21 wrote: post #13

So Google isn't trying to replicate Solar City, this is just an analysis tool if your home would be viable for solar panels. Almost like a middle-man for solar panel providers?

They are simply trying to reduce the resistance to solar energy adoption. If people can perform discovery and analysis in a fraction of the time, those who will benefit will more likely do it. Take a 10 hour process and reduce it to 30 minutes, for example. Same idea as a one-click checkout.

They're also trying to make money. Warm, qualified solar leads are worth hundreds or more.

Re: Project Sunroof

#42

Post by arscan »

swalsh wrote: post #18

Weird, it says it covers Boston but when I put my Boston address (single family in the city of Boston itself) it says they haven't reached the address yet.

I live just outside Boston and it worked for me (although it did consider my deck as part of my roof, which grossly inflated the estimate). Technically, they say "greater Boston area", so perhaps they don't actually include Boston itself.

Re: Project Sunroof

#44

Post by magicalist »

joesmo wrote: post #32
melling wrote: post #28

Want to see what it does, try City Hall: https://www.google.com/get/sunroof#a=2600%20Fresno%20St%2C%2...

So City Hall would actually save less money (12k vs 13k/14k) than the two regular homes I tried in San Francisco. If the numbers are correct, we're looking at $650-700 a year in savings. Not bad, but not that great either, especially considering heating alone in both buildings I looked at ran $150-300 / month (including summer which is hardly warmer at night in SF). Can solar panels be installed at such a price on a…

It looks like it's only tuned for residences (and maybe small apartment buildings) as you can only set the max electricity bill at $500 per month. I'm sure the city hall's bill is much higher.

Re: Project Sunroof

#45

Post by thrownaway2424 »

djb_hackernews wrote: post #36

I was recently thinking about a project to show how easy it would be to power the entire US on solar panels. It actually wouldn't require much land, in fact if you put panels on every building top and parking lot you'd be almost there. What I was imagining was something that'd show you "ideal" spots for solar farms. Ideal meaning proximity to population centers, orientation of land, environmental impact, etc.

If you just paved over Edwards AFB with PV panels you'd have 50% of US electric energy demand, and that's assuming a relatively modest 6kWh per day per square meter.

Re: Project Sunroof

#46

Post by sologoub »

minthd wrote: post #37

So how big of a business this could be for Google ?

Solar lead gen (and this is a very fancy form of lead gen) is a reasonable size business within greater lead gen industry, but I doubt this will be noted for the revenue potential in any of Alphabet earnings calls.

Re: Project Sunroof

#47

Post by netfire »

joesmo wrote: post #32
melling wrote: post #28

Want to see what it does, try City Hall: https://www.google.com/get/sunroof#a=2600%20Fresno%20St%2C%2...

So City Hall would actually save less money (12k vs 13k/14k) than the two regular homes I tried in San Francisco. If the numbers are correct, we're looking at $650-700 a year in savings. Not bad, but not that great either, especially considering heating alone in both buildings I looked at ran $150-300 / month (including summer which is hardly warmer at night in SF). Can solar panels be installed at such a price on a…

I'm guessing you left the average monthly electric bill slider at the $125/month position. You'd have to adjust the to what it actually is for City Hall, which I'd think is a lot more than $125/month.

Re: Project Sunroof

#48

Post by Navarr »

pilom wrote: post #43

Other than the "buy now" aspect, this doesn't seem any better for calculating solar savings than http://pvwatts.nrel.gov/ I used PVwatts when sizing my home system in Denver and thought it did a great job.

It's "easier." I just logged into PvWatts, knowing practically nothing about solar, and I'm confused at Step 2. There's a billion variables that it wants me to fill out instead of trying to calculate them for me for optimal results.

Re: Project Sunroof

#49

Post by anorwell »

joesmo wrote: post #32
melling wrote: post #28

Want to see what it does, try City Hall: https://www.google.com/get/sunroof#a=2600%20Fresno%20St%2C%2...

So City Hall would actually save less money (12k vs 13k/14k) than the two regular homes I tried in San Francisco. If the numbers are correct, we're looking at $650-700 a year in savings. Not bad, but not that great either, especially considering heating alone in both buildings I looked at ran $150-300 / month (including summer which is hardly warmer at night in SF). Can solar panels be installed at such a price on a…

One of the tunable parameters is the "size of your electric bill", which defaults to $150/month and maxes at $500/month -- far too low for a city hall, I should think. This is the limiting factor here, not the size of the roof. At $500/month, the recommended installation size is 765 square feet, but the total roof size is 50,171 sq feet. Only a small fraction of the roof area is being used.

This has clearly been designed for residences and not larger buildings.

Re: Project Sunroof

#50

Post by thrownaway2424 »

pilom wrote: post #43

Other than the "buy now" aspect, this doesn't seem any better for calculating solar savings than http://pvwatts.nrel.gov/ I used PVwatts when sizing my home system in Denver and thought it did a great job.

Hrmm, I don't know, the Google one seems more accurate in the details. It correctly shows my house as being plunged in darkness pretty much all day long (it's near the bottom of a slot canyon) whereas the site you linked above gives some quite rosy and unrealistic projections.
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