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Solar Roof

tesla.com

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Re: Solar Roof

#81

Post by ericd »

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?

It varies pretty widely based on the material - asphalt shingles are the cheapest of the cheap, and that's what most people would be comparing this to. Tile/slate are much more expensive.

Re: Solar Roof

#82

Post by flareback »

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…

How do the cars make money when in the garage?

Re: Solar Roof

#83

Post by TarpitCarnivore »

maxerickson wrote: post #36
mholt wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not the point. Sales from their previous, more expensive models allowed them to ramp up production capacity for the Model 3.

Sure it's the point. If they don't actually hit a $35,000 price then it is a bit much to credit them for bringing the price down to $35,000.

35K is also the base MSRP which almost never happens in a car sale.

Re: Solar Roof

#84

Post by ericd »

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.

He may have also been implicitly including an offset for the energy cost. A bit disingenuous, but they've done that before.

Re: Solar Roof

#85

Post by ProAm »

heisenbit wrote: post #38
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…

Considering how long Tesla has been in existence and how financially leveraged Tesla is I would take discount warranty value (lifetime of house or infinity whatever comes first). Can't project finances much more than 10 years max. At the moment cost of capital is low but that may well change in that time-frame. Things have to make sense in a decade or so also considering that this new technology that is obsoleted by…

It's definitely the lifetime of Tesla and not your house, roof, or owner.

Re: Solar Roof

#86

Post by wlesieutre »

drozycki wrote: post #70
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 a…

> 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's more like 5%. The larger numbers you're thinking of might be including generation losses. Coal plants are around 33% efficient in terms of converting the fuel's energy into electricity. Natural gas is better, but still under 50%.

https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=105&t=3

https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=107&t=3

Re: Solar Roof

#87

Post by BillinghamJ »

marcosdumay wrote: post #59
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…

It's because local photovoltaics can save a lot of infrastructure and can require nearly no labor. You don't buy cold air piped from across the city, you make it locally. Why?

Cold air cannot be transported over long distances. Electricity can.

Re: Solar Roof

#88

Post by fictioncircle »

sndean wrote: post #50
timtadh wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where I live $80k is a significant portion of the cost of most houses. The price will be a significant barrier to entry for houses outside of hot real estate markets.

Yeah, my brother just bought a pretty large house for $100k, but I guess people in rural North Carolina aren't the target buyer of solar roofs anyway. I wonder on what price home would a $80k roof make sense? >$800k?

That sounds about right to me.

A roof that exceeds 10% of the purchase price is likely to push the house outside of the price range of buyers in the target market.

I know a friend of mine (who has a solar system, not quite the same) but basically got almost nothing for it. The aesthetics of a "Solar Roof" is better but I don't see it raising the value of the house by more than 10%.

I used their calculator using the estimates when I had my roof done last time, and it is just not economically feasible.

$60k roof vs. $6k roof.

Net of $12k savings over 30 years.

$60k over 30 years (adjusting for inflation in conservative investments) is easily going to hit $180k.

Re: Solar Roof

#89

Post by ericd »

nsxwolf wrote: post #25

Oh wow. So that's disappointing. I was under the impression it was about the same cost as a new roof. I guess its starting at that cost, if you want just a tiny little bit of electricity.

To be fair, even their non-solar tempered glass tiles seem like a better option than slate/tile due to the durability. I'd consider even just that over asphalt, due to the longevity.

Re: Solar Roof

#90

Post by ivanhoe »

chii wrote: post #51
atourgates wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't really see the selling point, or value here. Tesla's calculator estimates $40,500 for a roof that generates half our power needs, and should provide $20,400 worth of energy over 30-years. Add in a PowerWall and federal tax credit, and I'm still losing $15,400 over 30-years. If I put that same $40,000 in an index fund that got the stock market's historical 7% average, and waited 30 years, I'd have $308,000. To…

> put that same $40,000 in an index fund that got the stock market's historical 7% average, and waited 30 years, I'd have $308,000. stock market isn't a very safe investment (that is, risk is much higher than putting in a bank), you can't make a comparison against buying some equipment, which is zero risk. A closer comparison is putting the $40,000 in a bank that guarentees interest (or treasury bonds, which is also…

Well investing in solar panels isn't either, 30 years is a lot of time for such (currently not very efficient) technology. Price of the electricity could go down significantly as current renewable or nuclear generators get improved over time, or perhaps someone will finally figure out how to do the fusion efficiently?
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