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Solar Roof

tesla.com

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Re: Solar Roof

#221

Post by RodericDay »

stratigos wrote: post #217

People are thinking way too much about how much this saves them at a personal level. I think people should instead be thinking about how we can save the existence of the entire species, and all other higher order forms of life on earth, rather than focusing on their individual tax breaks, savings, or other trivial concerns. Yes, your cash flow is rendered quite trivial if life on Earth ends. Invest in the Life Econom…

People serious about saving the planet aren't putting solar shingles on their mansions.

They're downsizing.

Re: Solar Roof

#222

Post by waynecochran »

Google's solar saving estimator is pretty cool -- I punch in my house address and it examines my roof line and notes how southernly each part of your roof lies.

Unfortunately, it says my cost would go up $53 a month! No point in getting solar if you live in Portland.

Re: Solar Roof

#223

Post by zensavona »

I understand where these people who are saying it sucks and it's too expensive are coming from. It is more expensive than normal solar panels.

BUT! How many wealthy people have beautiful houses that don't have solar panels? Why do you think that is?

Tesla has this cool factor that didn't exist for environmentally friendly things before. How many super rich people drove electric cars or hybrids before? Now Teslas are one of the cool things to have.

They are absolutely targeting a different segment of the population, but I think overall it's a very positive thing and it'll probably work.

Re: Solar Roof

#224

Post by waynecochran »

stratigos wrote: post #217

People are thinking way too much about how much this saves them at a personal level. I think people should instead be thinking about how we can save the existence of the entire species, and all other higher order forms of life on earth, rather than focusing on their individual tax breaks, savings, or other trivial concerns. Yes, your cash flow is rendered quite trivial if life on Earth ends. Invest in the Life Econom…

If the economics don't work, then you can wish you are saving the planet all you want, but it ain't gonna happen. Elon Musk understands this very well -- he always points out that solving the global warming problem will only work if the solution is economical.

Re: Solar Roof

#225

Post by dynofuz »

The hail ball test is deceptive. The tesla tile is held with more support since its horizontal. the max distance to any corner support is maybe 2-3 inches. the other natural tiles are vertical, and therefore have 4-5 inches to the farthest supported corners. It may still work, but we cant tell from that video.

Re: Solar Roof

#226

Post by martalist »

stratigos wrote: post #217

People are thinking way too much about how much this saves them at a personal level. I think people should instead be thinking about how we can save the existence of the entire species, and all other higher order forms of life on earth, rather than focusing on their individual tax breaks, savings, or other trivial concerns. Yes, your cash flow is rendered quite trivial if life on Earth ends. Invest in the Life Econom…

While noble, it seems the opposite is true. I think most people don't care about future problems, let alone other life forms. Musk has done so well precisely because he's marketed his products in a way that they appeal to people on a personal level. I mean, he could have started with a low performance, average-looking, electric, family sedan. Instead he sold something much more emotive/egotistical, with huge success.

If you want to do the right thing long term, provide products that do the right thing and market them on a personal level.

Re: Solar Roof

#227

Post by reboog711 »

blakesterz wrote: post #2

Yikes. I just signed a contract for a new roof here last month, it's going to cost about $12k. Just did the estimate for the Tesla Solar roof... $80,300, so $87k if I want the battery too. I can barely afford the $12 right now, the $80 is just so far over it's not even close, even with how much I save over the years in electricity. That being said, I love these things, so hoping it gets cheaper in the coming years.

There is a button on the calculator to change your settings.

It sized my roof at more than 2x the square footage of my house.

It also estimated my monthly electric bill at 4x what I pay on a monthly basis.

Changing those numbers put them to something closer to a new roof; and is definitely competitive with putting on a new roof and then paying for a solar panel installation.

Re: Solar Roof

#228

Post by catawbasam »

mundo wrote: post #206
SwellJoe wrote: post #64

I'm super excited about all of the great stuff happening in solar recently, but whenever I read about the economics of home solar, I'm also always reminded of how stacked the deck is for wealthy people vs. poor folks. There's a very large federal tax credit for solar investment. That's great...but, people who can't afford their own home get no such credit, and there's no way for them to get such a credit. That's a su…

This is tautological; the reason poor people don't get a lot of tax breaks is because they don't pay a lot of taxes. The government does spend a lot of money helping poor people, but not via tax credits.

It's not a tautology because tax credits aren't the only possibility for providing incentives.

Imagine you worked for $10/hour, and somehow got put in charge of designing the incentives. Do you think they would look like this? I don't.

Re: Solar Roof

#230

Post by dbg31415 »

stratigos wrote: post #217

People are thinking way too much about how much this saves them at a personal level. I think people should instead be thinking about how we can save the existence of the entire species, and all other higher order forms of life on earth, rather than focusing on their individual tax breaks, savings, or other trivial concerns. Yes, your cash flow is rendered quite trivial if life on Earth ends. Invest in the Life Econom…

"In the long run we are all dead." - John Maynard Keynes

You aren't wrong, but solutions have to be economically viable in the present.

There's some threshold people can pay to improve their lives (and potentially all lives) in the future -- but the difference between a standard roof and Tesla roof and battery is like 70k for me. I just redid my roof last year, cost me $14k -- and it's a very nice roof. Spending $85k on a roof... that's about a quarter the price of my house.

When it's a 2x price difference, I'd consider it. Realistically, even factoring in the cost of the electricity it will offset, it has to be similar in cost to a conventional roof for most people to invest. I think about one hail storm wiping out an $85k investment... and what insurance rates go up to in order to support this roof... and I just cringe.

Also keep in mind... supply and demand. As more people use solar... the price for electricity -- all electricity -- will go down. Since my electric bill from the power company is likely to drop (in the relative short-term), that lowers my incentive to pay a premium. We're likely to see a spike in oil and gas as prices for those plummet too... We'll need government to artificially inflate the cost of these to remind people about the environmental damage, or we'll do a lot of damage if the switch to solar happens too quickly.

Anyway... it's cool, just way out of my price point... and I feel like I make a fairly good living and tend to be a bit leftist on environmental issues... for your average Red-Stater, no way they're going to even consider paying a price like this. Looking forward to the "3" version of this in a decade or so, when the price drops to about 1/3 of what it is now, I'm sold!

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