201–210 of 290 posts
I wonder - if you run current through these when they're covered with snow, will they heat up and melt it away?
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https://www.google.com/get/sunroof#p=0
Very cool! It seems like it worked for my place: "0 sq feet available for solar panels Based on 3D modeling of your roof and nearby trees"
2000 hours of usable sunlight a year.
4664 sq ft available for panels.
Total 20 year savings: $1,000.
Seems... underwhelming.
Oh, this is for a lease.
$2,000 if you have to borrow to install the panels. Still... $100/yr?
The only worthwhile benefit is you can afford to pay $21,000 out of pocket.
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> there are regions where whole roofs are replaced by the majority of insured homeowners every 10 years or less. cite?
In coastal regions of the PNW it is not uncommon to see moss and algae growth start within 3 years of a roof being installed. Replacement can be necessary within 10 years if the problem isn't dealt with. source - owned a roof cleaning company.
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> there are regions where whole roofs are replaced by the majority of insured homeowners every 10 years or less. cite?
In coastal regions of the PNW it is not uncommon to see moss and algae growth start within 3 years of a roof being installed. Replacement can be necessary within 10 years if the problem isn't dealt with. source - owned a roof cleaning company.
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Monopolies make money and you need money to do cool stuff
Agreed, look at Google. Monopoly on search, and has definitely built some cool stuff.
What I find most clever about these roof panels is that is will likely silence a lot of HOA critics. While more and more states are considering "solar rights" laws, it is still better for all involved not to have to fight that battle.
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Thick glass tends to be fairly resilient so anything that's going to damage these would likely destroy normal tiles anyway. Depending on how modular these things are they should be able to deal with breaks without significant problem just run in parallel like the good Christmas lights which still work when one goes out.
I had a ceramic roof once. Walking on the roof would break the tiles. It made it hard to do maintenance on anything up there. My preference these days would be for a metal roof.
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Agreed, look at Google. Monopoly on search, and has definitely built some cool stuff.
Yeah people seem to disagree but I find it weird to see Silicon Valley seems to dislike monopolies but constantly builds them. Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Intel, really just name any big tech companies and they probably have a monpoly or something very close to one on something. There's no problem with it and the only real way to get the returns that people expect is to create a monopoly somewhere.
I'm sure i'm not the only one who feels like this is possibly the iphone moment of Solarcity/Tesla: an old-ish idea, made sexy and tasty to consumers, together with technology reaching a tipping point(and also Musk again finding a way to maximally exploit government subsidies for clean tech.) The tesla car itself could count as well, but felt less "design driven" imo. If this fails, everyone will call it obviously du…
From a popular perspective - you are maybe right - they 'sexified' something not quite so sexy. However - I suggest this won't work out like the iPhone. Why? Because --> 'new roofs' are not built that often, by that I mean new homes and roofing replacements. And the construction industry has totally different dynamics. Putting on a 'regular' new roof is expensive. Most people won't consider this tech unless their hom…
Source? Roofs last 20-30 years. 125 million homes in the U.S., with roofs being replaced every 25 years means 5 million roofs per year. Triple that for Europe, China, and the rest and you've got 15 million a year. It's a big ticket item so you don't have to capture that much of the market to start hitting pretty serious revenue numbers.