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Tesla Solar Roof is on life support as it pivot to panels

electrek.co

311–320 of 363 posts

Re: Tesla Solar Roof is on life support as it pivot to panels

#311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You just built another roof on top of your roof. People generally limit the number of roofs to one, as they are expensive and important for keeping the outside out and the inside in. Residential roofs are more or less the worst place possible to put solar panels.

> People generally limit the number of roofs to one, as they are expensive and important for keeping the outside out and the inside in. What does this mean? And why is it the worst place to put solar panels? Is this and America only phenomenon, cause in India people are installing them like hot cakes on the roof. What’s different about roofs here?

Your roofs are (often) concrete flat roofs with structural floor

The American roofs mentioned are typically significantly inclined, made of a less rigid material (wood, asphalt shingles), and not built to the expectations of supporting as much.

When OP says 'the worst place' they mean it is not a structural place, it is hard to access, and it serves an important function that is best not to mess with.

Note, I do not fully agree with OP but I get the points made.

Re: Tesla Solar Roof is on life support as it pivot to panels

#312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eyesore? Maybe on well architected multimillion dollar custom homes. On the average suburban tract home in my corner of the USA, panels are no more ugly than the shingled roofs they sit atop.

I’ve never understood why so many houses in the US have felt shingles rather than a longer lasting alternative Tiles on my house are at least 150yrs old

It took about three weeks of labour and just under three grand in cost to redo the shingles on my roof. It was just over two grand for the shingles, the rest for misc. Not including me taking two weeks off of work.

About three weeks because I didn't do it all at once, an 11/12 pitch is tiring to work on. One week per side of stripping/waterproofing, then a couple weekends of shingling.

Edit: the stripping took a week from having two layers of shingles, first layer was cedar than asphalt.

Re: Tesla Solar Roof is on life support as it pivot to panels

#313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Australia solar panels are so ubiquitous I don't think you'd even notice them. They just blend in as much as any other functional part of a house.

When things get so widespread people stop crying about aesthetics. Railways, highways, wind turbines- they become part of the landscape.

Roads covered with cars are an egregious eyesore and yet everyone is thoroughly acclimated to them. The amount of land we allocate just for parking would be shocking if it weren't so normal.

Speaking of which, solar roofs for parking lots always seemed like a thing we should be doing everywhere. I'm sure it's not cheap to build the structure but it has the added benefit of protecting cars.

Re: Tesla Solar Roof is on life support as it pivot to panels

#314
post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But I guess my first question is why you want solar panels at all then? For most people it’s about saving money long term first, then maybe energy independence (especially in emergencies) if possible, then just wanting to go green. If it’s aesthetics, you can do a cool roof without solar I assume. What drove you to get solar panels ultimately and why did you go Tesla? Genuinely curious. I have a feeling you’ll say so…

No, you're pretty spot on. It was the overlap of a couple of factors: 1. I wanted solar & batteries as a buffer for grid outages 2. I wanted to be able to offset some of my energy usage with solar 3. I wanted my roof to look nice, and personally I think solar panels strapped onto a roof don't look very appealing. 4. At the time, Tesla was one of the few names in town for an integrated solar roof. Saving money wasn't…

Makes sense! Appreciate the insight

Re: Tesla Solar Roof is on life support as it pivot to panels

#315
post #282

I keep hoping some architect will take up an residential building design with solar panels to rethink with deeper integration than just a "material" swap out. On the roof, mounting panels inches over the roof, or even as the roof material is a terrible thermal environment. Why not design in a rooftop open air living space, topped with solar panels. Panels get cooler temperatures, the physical roof gets reduced temper…

I don't know about roofing, but for wall solar there is Solablock (https://www.solablock.com/), which makes solar-embedded masonry. Much better thermal profile and cheaper overall installation costs.

Re: Tesla Solar Roof is on life support as it pivot to panels

#316
post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey cool this is like those myspace surveys. Let me participate. 1. I support nuclear, really stupid not to use anything else. Blame politicians and the hippies. 2. Yeah wind imo is useless, and it's more than 2 dozen. Quite high, I don't think comparing kills to the top predator is a win. Also windmills are in raptor's paths, generally cats don't eat raptors. Noisy and ugly too. 3. Solar is nice, will use it as aux,…

Before you get down voted to oblivion: > 4. I own a cybertruck Mind if I ask why?

Yeah I love FSD and I need a lot of space.

Feels like a space ship and I love it more than my ICE truck.

And yeah, realized that would be downvoted. Fun to break the bubble here with other opinions though.

Re: Tesla Solar Roof is on life support as it pivot to panels

#317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey cool this is like those myspace surveys. Let me participate. 1. I support nuclear, really stupid not to use anything else. Blame politicians and the hippies. 2. Yeah wind imo is useless, and it's more than 2 dozen. Quite high, I don't think comparing kills to the top predator is a win. Also windmills are in raptor's paths, generally cats don't eat raptors. Noisy and ugly too. 3. Solar is nice, will use it as aux,…

Solar panels may not be everyone's cup of tea, but they're fine, you get used to them. I think windmills look cool as shit. But then I think cybertrucks are one of the ugliest things created by man, so I guess the point is we each have our own taste.

A windmill by itself looks cool as shit. But the landscape gets ruined.

It's the equivalent of 100 radio towers crowding the area. Kind of takes you out of nature.

And I don't have a CT because it's pretty. I have it because it's functional and so fucking cool.

Re: Tesla Solar Roof is on life support as it pivot to panels

#318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eyesore? Maybe on well architected multimillion dollar custom homes. On the average suburban tract home in my corner of the USA, panels are no more ugly than the shingled roofs they sit atop.

I’ve never understood why so many houses in the US have felt shingles rather than a longer lasting alternative Tiles on my house are at least 150yrs old

The shingles used in the us are a good compromise. They are cheap and easy to repair. Clay lasts well overall but one broken tile is going to be expensive to repair.

Re: Tesla Solar Roof is on life support as it pivot to panels

#319
post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meanwhile in the UK, the Future Homes standard mandates it on new build: https://solar4good.co.uk/blogs/solar-property-developers-uk-... > "requires on-site renewable electricity generation for new homes in England — solar PV covering around 40% of ground floor area where feasible" As well as an end to new gas boilers, replaced with a heat pump mandate. > The estimated build cost increase is around £4,350 per dwellin…

You're comparing apples to oranges, at least a bit. $60k for a roof plus solar is going to be for a larger US home compared to a UK home- probably in the 3000 sq ft range, unless it's a very steep roof with lots of dormers or corners. Also, the cost savings for the UK home are due to much higher energy prices- the cost savings would be much smaller in the US. With that said, Tesla's Solar Roof is definitely the gold…

OTOH solar is a lot less useful in the UK than in the US. The southern tip of the UK is north of all the major Canadian cities, in the depths of winter we get about 6 hours of daylight with the sun barely reaching 20 degrees above the horizon. The winter is also where most electricity usage is too, doubly so when you want to replace gas heating with a heat pump. No AC and summer daylight past 10pm means that residential electricy usage in the summer, when solar does make sense, is very low.

Re: Tesla Solar Roof is on life support as it pivot to panels

#320
post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve never understood why so many houses in the US have felt shingles rather than a longer lasting alternative Tiles on my house are at least 150yrs old

It took about three weeks of labour and just under three grand in cost to redo the shingles on my roof. It was just over two grand for the shingles, the rest for misc. Not including me taking two weeks off of work. About three weeks because I didn't do it all at once, an 11/12 pitch is tiring to work on. One week per side of stripping/waterproofing, then a couple weekends of shingling. Edit: the stripping took a week…

When we moved in I had my house re-roofed to add insulation and a breathable membrane

Took a day to take all the tiles off the front, add insulation, membrane and batten it. Then another half day or so to put the original tiles back on

Back took slightly longer because we had some alterations done but it was just over a week in total effort

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