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Solar Roof

tesla.com

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Re: Solar Roof

#61

Post by palakchokshi »

jdashg wrote: post #53
palakchokshi wrote: post #47

2 self driving Teslas in the garage (making money when not used) $150,000 1 power wall battery pack $7,000 1 Solar Roof $80,000 Subtract $15,000 in Federal tax credits for both cars $5,000 in California tax credits for both cars 30% of 80,000 = $24,000 Solar Investment tax credit $237,000 - $44,000 Grand Total $193,000 Calculate savings $240 per month in gas $100-$300 per month in electricity $1000 - $2000 earned by…

CA tax credits are gone for those making over 150k.

...for single filers

and $300,000 for joint filers

Re: Solar Roof

#62

Post by bofia »

IvanK_net wrote: post #45

I have always been a huge fan of a quick transition to sustainable energy sources. There is just one little thing I don't understand. Why they expect people to make electricity at their homes? You can buy a little piece of land in a dessert, put solar panels there and distribute the electricity to other places. And you don't have to climb on any roof during the installation or the maintenance. It is not profitable to…

A lot of the cost and inefficiency of electricity is the storage and transmission over long distances.

Re: Solar Roof

#63

Post by Matt3o12_ »

Does anyone understand how the warranty works? From their solar panel page[0], it says that there is a 30 year warranty for Power and Weatherization and a lifetime warranty.

So, what does the lifetime cover? The only thing that can go wrong is that either the power module fails or the tile is damaged due to weather, which is both covered by the 30 year warranty.

Nevertheless, a 30 year warranty is still pretty impressive and even more so if it covers normal wear and tear from weather.

[0]: https://www.tesla.com/solarroof?redirect=no

Re: Solar Roof

#64

Post by SwellJoe »

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 super common trait for lot of incentives; they go to people who need them least. And, the people who are getting these incentives, are also using a lot more power (bigger houses, more power), and so even with solar, their huge houses may still be contributing more to emissions than the poor folks who aren't getting any tax breaks living in apartments or rental properties.

I don't really have any answers on this, I just think it doesn't get talked about enough.

Re: Solar Roof

#65

Post by mavhc »

fpgaminer wrote: post #35

I'm so absolutely excited for solar power. Tesla's Solar Roof, their PowerWall batteries, electric cars. It's all just painting such a bright future. Certainly Tesla has no monopoly on it, but they've made it sexy and are pushing the bleeding edge forward. Props to them. We recently signed a contract to do an installation on our house (with a local contractor, not SolarCity). It can't happen soon enough! We'll have e…

Going off grid means you need a lot more batteries, which need materials and energy to make.

Switching from gas to electricity for heating is a bad idea if there's still coal power stations in use, if you're not selling your excess power to the grid, they're going to turn on that coal power plant again.

Sharing power is a much better idea than trying to store it in batteries, unless those batteries are in a car

Re: Solar Roof

#66

Post by ricardobeat »

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.

How on earth did you hit 80k? Using the calculator, the roof for a two-story 3000sqft home comes down to $50-60k, with a net gain of $5k. If your house is any larger than that, $80k is pocket change.

Re: Solar Roof

#67

Post by brianbreslin »

Any idea on whether or not this would improve your home's resale value? Also it won't let you go a full 100% (max 70%) of your roof coverage. Do they fill the rest with regular tiles?

The average person would have to finance this. So what's the true cost?

Re: Solar Roof

#68

Post by killjoywashere »

jandrese wrote: post #54
IvanK_net wrote: post #45

I have always been a huge fan of a quick transition to sustainable energy sources. There is just one little thing I don't understand. Why they expect people to make electricity at their homes? You can buy a little piece of land in a dessert, put solar panels there and distribute the electricity to other places. And you don't have to climb on any roof during the installation or the maintenance. It is not profitable to…

You build a solar farm out in the desert it is up to you to maintain it and the supporting infrastructure (transmission lines). Put a solar roof on a home and it is the homeowner's responsibility to maintain it.

There's also the values of geographic distribution:

* on site transmission cost is $0 for power used

* the effect of a man-made or natural disaster in one location is contained: throwing a breaker for maintenance at the Arizona border doesn't shutdown power across an entire region: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Southwest_blackout.

Re: Solar Roof

#69

Post by mechathor »

myroon5 wrote: post #60

I'm surprised they didn't team up more with Google's Project Sunroof or Zillow or create their own version of those projects, so that you could just put in your home address and get all the relevant details. Had to check Zillow to find out my own square footage.

They do use Google Sunroof -- your home may not fall under supported areas.

Re: Solar Roof

#70

Post by drozycki »

IvanK_net wrote: post #45

I have always been a huge fan of a quick transition to sustainable energy sources. There is just one little thing I don't understand. Why they expect people to make electricity at their homes? You can buy a little piece of land in a dessert, put solar panels there and distribute the electricity to other places. And you don't have to climb on any roof during the installation or the maintenance. It is not profitable to…

Not an expert here but a couple things come to mind.

From an environmental perspective, it is better to use surface area which is already built up than pristine natural desert land. The house itself already imposes an ecological cost. A solar roof adds around zero to that cost.

I've heard the stat thrown about that 50% of energy generated is lost to transmission. If that's true then there's efficiency to generation at home.

It probably doesn't figure into anyone's decision but decentralized generation leads to a more resilient "grid". As it stands we are potentially vulnerable to warfare/terrorism attacks on the grid.

Tesla the consumer brand is about being smarter than your neighbor. Wow you have a car which is electric yet more performant than my car? Wow you have solar panels and the aesthetic is better than mine? Wow you're completely off the grid? So much material for dinner parties. In short there is a good value of cool factor for amount of work. And there are people who break the market logic and bake their own bread, plant their own vegetables.

You're right that power from a solar farm will be an option somebody but for many people it's not an option yet. This is something you can do in the near term.

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