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Solar Roof

tesla.com

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Re: Solar Roof

#141

Post by greglindahl »

azeirah wrote: post #16
SirLJ wrote: post #8

Tesla acquired SolarCity in November in a deal worth $2.1 billion. At the event, Musk said Tesla's roof would price competitively with normal roofs and could even cost less. "It's looking quite promising that a solar roof will actually cost less than a normal roof before you even take the value of electricity into account," Musk said at the event. "So the basic proposition would be: Would you like a roof that looks b…

I'm 21, thus I have no idea what roofs normally cost. I assume they're very very heavily below ~80k? For a "regular" house, what would a roof cost? 4k? 10k? 500?

Tesla's initial product is actually intended to compete against premium roofs, not low-end. There are lots of places where you're not even allowed to install a low-end roof due to homeowner association rules.

Re: Solar Roof

#142

Post by vkou »

bluehawk wrote: post #130
vkou wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's because local photovoltaics can save a lot of infrastructure and can require nearly no labor. No, they don't. You still need almost the entire national power grid to supply your home with night-time electricity... That infrastructure won't be going anywhere. An even worse outcome will be every home having local power storage infrastructure. Tens, or hundreds of thousands of dollars for a power wall, or a compr…

Since we are discussing Tesla solar roofs, they suggest your installation comes with a PowerWall, thereby storing power during the day to use at night. I personally don't think we are there yet, but I think the goal is that you don't need the entire national power grid just for night electricity, just a big battery.

Batteries + roof PV, is far more expensive on a per-watt basis, then a power grid + utility-scale generation.

"Just buy a $15,000 PowerWall, which you will need to replace every 10 years" is, compared to grid electricity, incredibly wasteful.

There's a reason why customers and users overwhelmingly prefer centralization, even if its harmful for them in the long-term. It's cheaper, and people would prefer it to be someone elses' problem.

Re: Solar Roof

#143

Post by greglindahl »

Analemma_ wrote: post #33
SirLJ wrote: post #8

Tesla acquired SolarCity in November in a deal worth $2.1 billion. At the event, Musk said Tesla's roof would price competitively with normal roofs and could even cost less. "It's looking quite promising that a solar roof will actually cost less than a normal roof before you even take the value of electricity into account," Musk said at the event. "So the basic proposition would be: Would you like a roof that looks b…

> At the event, Musk said Tesla's roof would price competitively with normal roofs and could even cost less. I think we may need to start applying a "multiplier" to any costs or delivery dates that Elon mentions. I love him to death but he does have quite a history of underestimating these things.

At the roof launch event, Elon was very clear that it priced competitively with high-end roofs. And that appears to be what the actual price competes with.

Re: Solar Roof

#144

Post by Scoundreller »

stale2002 wrote: post #123
Scoundreller wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Through the tax credits, we're all paying for someone else's pet project. Since Tesla's products are expensive, it would be a regressive tax even if we all bought enough solar panels for our needs.

The point of the tax credit is to encourage innovation. Yes, solar roofs are a bad investment NOW, but they might be a good idea in 20 years, once all these businesses have done this research on them.

If solar roof companies are to get an indirect tax credit then:

1) It should be in exchange for preferred stock/bonds in the company; and/or

2) the tax credit should favour lower prices, not higher

Re: Solar Roof

#145

Post by djrogers »

stupidhn wrote: post #104
geekagirl wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had my (very boxy and boring) 1800 sq ft house reroofed with 30 year asphalt shingles for ~$7k, including tearing off both previous layers of shingles. I looked at getting a metal roof, and standing seam was going to cost about $16k. Edited to add: The cost of living is cheap where I am.

> I looked at getting a metal roof, and standing seam was going to cost about $16k. Same. There seems to be a subset of HackerNews who thinks that most homeowners can pay $50k for a roof and $35k for a car. It's cool high-end stuff, but certainly is not mainstream.

$35k for a car is absolutely mainstream - in fact that's just about the average price for one...

[1]https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2015/05/04/new-car...

Re: Solar Roof

#146

Post by dbecker »

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.

The $80k roof is especially scary if you live in an area with any type of natural disaster risk.

The area I live in just had a huge hail storm. Most roofs in our neighborhood will require repairs. That's a bummer with asphalt shingles, but it would be a lot worse with an $80k roof.

Most people won't think about those risks, but over the time period you need to consider for a roof, it's a big risk in most places.

Re: Solar Roof

#147

Post by ensignavenger »

Fezzik wrote: post #43
aasarava wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You got a $12K quote for tile? How long is the warranty? Remember that the 80K quote includes solar, so you'd have to add a standard solar install of the same KW capacity to your initial quote to really compare apples to apples. You'll probably still pay a premium to go with Tesla, but the no-profile solar integration and lifetime warranty really look attractive. Some people are probably willing to pay for it, simila…

It's not really a lifetime warranty though. If you click through to the Tesla purchasing page, there is (only) a 30 years Power Warranty and Weatherization Warranty... which in my mind renders calling it a lifetime warranty sort of silly, as the purpose of the shingles (power generation) is not covered by the lifetime portion of the warranty. 30 years still seems like a significant warranty for a product like this th…

You can readily buy a 30 year shingle roof. Calling it a lifetime warranty when it is no better than a common, good quality shingle roof is absurd. Metal roofs have even longer warranties.

Re: Solar Roof

#148

Post by dEnigma »

"In doing our own research on the roofing industry, it became clear that roofing costs vary widely, and that buying a roof is often a worse experience than buying a car through a dealership."

Seems like someone just couldn't resist putting that little jab in there.

Re: Solar Roof

#149

Post by canterburry »

greglindahl wrote: post #111
canterburry wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I just want a new roof. I wasn't planning on installing Solar. Solar was supposed to be a perk of buying the roof from Tesla...and all of this was supposed to cost as much as a roof alone.

Cite? Tesla (at the product launch) actually said it was about as much as buying a new, premium roof + electricity.

Exactly...cost was supposed to be a new premium roof (just the roof, no solar panels) and they are about 3 times more expensive than "just the roof".

Unless they meant a "new roof" as in when you build a house from scratch and you don't have rafters or anything. If you have an existing roof you are redoing every 20 years or so, then this is definitely not the cost of a "new roof".

So, which "new roof" are we talking about here?

Re: Solar Roof

#150

Post by solotronics »

mrtron wrote: post #32

Not sure why all the negative energy. They are going after the portion of the market that would replace their roof with a high end material, and are interested in solar. If you are a home owner in this situation, you could consider investing into your home. The roof will pay dividends over the next 30 years, and is attractive and durable. I think it will do extremely well. Perhaps the best opportunity is in new const…

yeah there is little economic incentive for anyone outside of California will to retrofit these onto an existing house. Take Texas for example a large house in Dallas is $500k I used the provided calculator on the Tesla site and the roof install will cost $211k! that is not justifiable on a house this expensive.
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