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Tesla killing Solar Roof is leaving installers with six-figure losses

electrek.co

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Re: Tesla killing Solar Roof is leaving installers with six-figure losses

#91

Post by tempestn »

atonse wrote: post #59
mytailorisrich wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to me that this is standard practice in the industry (solar panels/batteries, HVAC, boilers, heat pumps, etc). And, yes it leaves you at risk if the supplier decides to cancel the product(s) or if they just go bust. Electrek has a bias against Tesla/Musk, IMHO and so tend to paint everything in a negative way. You need to take what they write with a grain of salt.

I've never seen a person have such a frothing-at-the-mouth hate for any company as Fred Lambert at Elektrek has for Musk/Tesla. Just filter for his posts, it's kind of crazy. After a few posts I started noticing a while back. Lambert writes like Elon Musk killed his puppies with his bare hands. It causes Lambert to have nearly zero credibility in anything he writes about Tesla. It doesn't come from a place of good fa…

I do agree that Lambert's coverage of Tesla appears to be pretty one-sided, and that the company has provided significant benefits to the world, but I also think there's a reasonable case to be made that Musk himself is a uniquely deleterious figure, even if the harm he brings isn't with his bare hands.

Re: Tesla killing Solar Roof is leaving installers with six-figure losses

#92

Post by trueno »

walrus01 wrote: post #5
Reubend wrote: post #2

Is there any competitor in the USA? The idea of roof tiles which are themselves solar panels seems sensible to me, and it's more aesthetically pleasing than putting panels on top of normal tiles.

It's extremely labor intensive and costly to put stuff up on the roof, and problematic in terms of electrical connector, electrical safety, and being proprietary for mounting and roof repair. Big ass PV panels that are 2.0 x 1.0 meter in size (or larger) are so cheap now for photovoltaic ground mounts that the labor and mounting can actually cost more than the panels. 460W panels can be something like $0.25 USD per S…

without having looked into the tesla roof tiles like at all (so stop reading here if you want any sort of informed discussion), are these things like placed individually and wired together individually? does every tile get a microinverter or is it like a net of tiles belong to one? is this potentially hundreds of connectors acrossed your roof that would be so many points of failure. if so that seems nuts and hardly worth the absurd cost just for aesthetics. feel like anyone who can afford this could just have whatever roof they want and then have their solar array farm nearby on their presumably many acres of land.

in the marine/rv world there are like walkable solar panels that you can literally just like walk on now, theres solar awnings, i dunno. just in my limited experience i'd be surprised if they dont have the christmas light problem (one goes out many go out) and solar arrays just seem to do awesome in panel configurations and i think in the consumer world theyre reaching 25% conversion, no idea what tesla is marketing but those guys are dorks with marketing anyways

Re: Tesla killing Solar Roof is leaving installers with six-figure losses

#93

Post by TitaRusell »

walrus01 wrote: post #62
moomoo11 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Money won't matter in 10 years" "Time won't matter either"

I think if you take enough Ketamine, it probably does seem like time ceases to matter.

True story I had to do a urine test for a warehouse job once. This was near minimum wage work.

Clown world.

Re: Tesla killing Solar Roof is leaving installers with six-figure losses

#94

Post by throw93947309 »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #30
felixgallo wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you suspect Amazon is going to stop delivering packages?

I suspect they will continue to use “contractors” until regime change forces them not to. Midterms look good for swinging toward Dems (due to gestures broadly at everything ), and this federal admin has an end date (relates to NLRB and employee classification enforcement). These issues change on an arc over years or decades. NYC has started to do this until then: https://www.nyc.gov/mayors-office/news/2026/08/mayor-m…

So "employees" will drive for uber/amazon in their own cars, and will be unable to put gas and car maintenance into tax write offs as expenses (it is form of commute to work).

Lovely!

Re: Tesla killing Solar Roof is leaving installers with six-figure losses

#95

Post by toomuchtodo »

JLO64 wrote: post #44
toomuchtodo wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect they will continue to use “contractors” until regime change forces them not to. Midterms look good for swinging toward Dems (due to gestures broadly at everything ), and this federal admin has an end date (relates to NLRB and employee classification enforcement). These issues change on an arc over years or decades. NYC has started to do this until then: https://www.nyc.gov/mayors-office/news/2026/08/mayor-m…

I deliver packages for Amazon as an independent contractor (via Amazon Flex). While there are plenty of issues I have with it, I have an overall positive sentiment. For those who don’t want to work full time hours (you can schedule yourself in 1-5 hour blocks), immigrants, or are just in a bad spot it’s not a bad option. I’ve worked for food delivery apps as well and I think it’s a better gig compared to those other…

I’ve heard a rumor that ICE is using access to gig work platforms to pickup immigrants, so I’m unsure if it’s a positive for those in the US who aren’t citizens. They’ve already consumed IRS data to do so (in violation of the law, but laws don’t matter currently).

DoorDash specifically has strong signal it’s relying heavily on undocumented labor, for example.

The only folks it really works for are those who need to convert their vehicle equity to cash promptly without any regulation.

https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/cc91fda7-4669-4d1b-81ce-a0b...

Re: Tesla killing Solar Roof is leaving installers with six-figure losses

#96

Post by hyldmo »

queuebert wrote: post #84
MichaelZuo wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah it would be more surprising if they didn’t have a mandatory expensive program considering how much more complex it is than normal roofing stuff.

Is it? Modern roofing is pretty complex and is begging for innovation, even with materials that don't generate electricity.

Anyone wanna disrupt the roofing industry with me? YC W27, tagline "like uber but for roofing". roofies.ai?

Re: Tesla killing Solar Roof is leaving installers with six-figure losses

#97

Post by atonse »

tempestn wrote: post #91
atonse wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never seen a person have such a frothing-at-the-mouth hate for any company as Fred Lambert at Elektrek has for Musk/Tesla. Just filter for his posts, it's kind of crazy. After a few posts I started noticing a while back. Lambert writes like Elon Musk killed his puppies with his bare hands. It causes Lambert to have nearly zero credibility in anything he writes about Tesla. It doesn't come from a place of good fa…

I do agree that Lambert's coverage of Tesla appears to be pretty one-sided, and that the company has provided significant benefits to the world, but I also think there's a reasonable case to be made that Musk himself is a uniquely deleterious figure, even if the harm he brings isn't with his bare hands.

That may be true, but I feel that is a separate conversation (whether Elon Musk and his companies, taken whole, have had net good or net bad contributions to the world) from Lambert's coverage, which seems to pick any single _event_ and select the most heinous, corrupt, version full of malicious intent when often unwarranted, extremely bad faith and never adds informational value to that larger debate.

Re: Tesla killing Solar Roof is leaving installers with six-figure losses

#98

Post by walrus01 »

TitaRusell wrote: post #93
walrus01 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think if you take enough Ketamine, it probably does seem like time ceases to matter.

True story I had to do a urine test for a warehouse job once. This was near minimum wage work. Clown world.

Blame both the warehouse and their insurance company and personal injury lawyers in general, they probably live in fear of lawsuits from a methed up forklift driver knocking over a pallet rack and killing several people.

Re: Tesla killing Solar Roof is leaving installers with six-figure losses

#100

Post by walrus01 »

vardalab wrote: post #76
chid wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you look at the history it was doomed to fail. I wouldn’t blame it on Tesla.

Who would you blame it on? Physics, gravity, destiny?

I would blame whatever team of figurative rocket scientists decided that putting something with many dozens of tiny discrete electrical connectors in a flat aesthetically pleasing format on a roof, exposed to rain/snow/ice.

There's a reason why the MC4 connector for traditional PV panel wiring and similar is designed the way it is, and why other things like IP67 and IP68 rated outdoor, 600/1000/1500V rated DC power connectors are as robust as they are.

This is entirely aside from the installation and mounting and labor issues to have such a weird custom solar roof tile and mount it in a way that doesn't make the roof impossible to maintain, doesn't cause leaks, and doesn't blow away in the wind.

And then secondarily blame Tesla's acquisition of solarcity to bail out Elon's brother.

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