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Florida owners with panoramic roof do we need the sun shade?

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Larry Chanin

President, Florida Tesla Enthusiasts
Moderator
Aug 22, 2011
4,937
814
Sarasota, Florida
Now that we have several Florida Model S owners I would be very interested in your thoughts on whether the manual sun shade is needed with the panoramic roof.

In particular I am interested in learning whether passengers in the rear are likely to need the shade on ocassions.

Thanks.

Larry
 
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Now that we have several Florida Model S owners I would be very interested in your thoughts on whether the manual sun shade is needed with the panoramic roof.

In particular I am interested in learning whether passengers in the rear are likely to need the shade on ocassions.

Thanks.

Larry

We've had very sunny days the past couple of days, as you know, and I haven't missed the sunshade for 1 second, and I've driven the car midday when it would be most necessary with the sun shining right on top of me. I haven't had any rear passengers yet (other than my son Tuesday night), but it's really tinted sufficiently I think. The contrast with the non-tinted side windows and front windshield is stark. My guess is that very few people with the pano roof ends up getting the sun shade.
 
With the full understanding that the Model S has a heat resistant coated glass roof and a sunshade to block out the sun rays... I think an effective solution would be to have the entire pano roof tinted with the highest performing and the lowest percentage tint available. I think it can be a relatively inexpensive solution for the elevated temps some of you current owners are experiencing. Let me know if I'm off base with this idea.
 
Drove today at the height of sun (12-1) and had no issues with heat or brightness. And there is not a cloud in the sky here. I think it's going to be ok.

Btw, the A/C definitely has to work, especially when it's hot out (we're in the 80s here today). Summer is going to mean greatly reduced range, I believe, to keep the cabin cool.
 
With the full understanding that the Model S has a heat resistant coated glass roof and a sunshade to block out the sun rays... I think an effective solution would be to have the entire pano roof tinted with the highest performing and the lowest percentage tint available. I think it can be a relatively inexpensive solution for the elevated temps some of you current owners are experiencing. Let me know if I'm off base with this idea.

From the panoramic roof thread:

The issue is not visible light. If you wanted to reject more than 98% of the visible light there's really no point in having a panoramic roof.

The issue is heat rejection. According to Tesla the panoramic roof rejects 81% of the heat load. According to 3M their best film only rejects 60% of the heat load and blocks another 61% of the remaining visible light. So adding the film to the panoramic roof would reduce the total heat load to about 92% and the visible light to about 99.2%. I assume the shades would reject close to 100% of the heat load.

Using the free shade has the advantage of being adjustable. Adding an additional tint on top of the existing tint will cost quite a bit, it is not adjustable and it probably will block too much visible light, defeating the purpose of the panoramic roof.

Larry

What specific tint did you have in mind?

Larry
 
Drove today at the height of sun (12-1) and had no issues with heat or brightness. And there is not a cloud in the sky here. I think it's going to be ok.

Thanks.

It should be pointed out that George stated in a posting that seems to have been deleted, that the absence of a shade "...is more impactful in the back seats."

Btw, the A/C definitely has to work, especially when it's hot out (we're in the 80s here today). Summer is going to mean greatly reduced range, I believe, to keep the cabin cool.

Now, if you happend to have a sun shade you would cut down the A/C load by 19% by closing the shade. :wink:

Larry
 
We've only had our car a couple of days, but it's not the winter sun that's bothersome. Actually, I've drove around yesterday mostly with the roof open (today was a little drizzly). The big test will be next summer.

As a fellow Floridian, I agree - it's hard to tell now given the nearly perfect weather (hooray for winter in Florida!). I think we're just going to have to wait and see what it looks like and how easily the car handles the summer heat...
 
Larry

I was think about a 3M( Ceramic 50) or a LLumar 55% tint that would allow for light to shine through but would block 99% of the UV rays. The idea would be to reduce the heat but still keep the factory look and feel of the pano roof.

Benefits of Window Tint for Cars | Tint Industry

You are confusing UV rejection with total solar energy rejected. Virtually all laminated glass and tints will reject 99% of UV rays. Your referenced link only shows the visible light reduction and doesn't discuss the all important total solar energy rejected.

3M Ceramic 50 will block 50% of the visible light and 56% of the total solar energy transmitted through the panoramic roof. It is not much different from the tint that I referenced in my previous posting. So rounding to the nearest percentage it would be the same. That is it would reduce visible light by 99% and total solar energy would be reduced by 92%.

There are two Llumar tints that transmit 55% of visible light. They reject 34%-35% of total solar energy. The overall result will not be much different from the 3M tints. They would reduce visible light by 99% and total solar energy would be reduced by 88%.

Bottomline: You are still comparing a free sun shade that can be adjusted from no additional blockage to nearly 100% solar energy blockage, to a tint that is fixed results and in blocking 99% of visible light without significantly increasing the blockage of solar energy and would cost upwards of $1,000.

Larry
 
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Bottomline: You are still comparing a free sun shade that can be adjusted from no additional blockage to nearly 100% solar energy blockage, to a tint that is fixed results and in blocking 99% of visible light without significantly increasing the blockage of solar energy and would cost upwards of $1,000.

Larry

Larry not exactly...my idea is not to supersede the shade but to enhance what came out of the factory when it comes to the piano roof. If my idea can reduce a percentage of degree in the temperatures in the cabin then I feel it's worth a look.
 
Larry not exactly...my idea is not to supersede the shade but to enhance what came out of the factory when it comes to the piano roof. If my idea can reduce a percentage of degree in the temperatures in the cabin then I feel it's worth a look.

With all due respect, as I see it adding tinting in addition to the panoramic roof tinting and a free sun shade is an unnecessary expense that would reduce the visible light entering by about 99% without materially improving the total solar energy rejection.

Simply closing the shade on those occasions were it is needed will more effectively eliminate the extra heat load both on the passengers and on the air condition system when it is needed. This will result in added comfort and increased range. An expensive fixed tint can't be varied based on conditions and it is even possible that it will reject too much visible light thus defeating the purpose of a panoramic roof.

The only downsides I see with a manual sun shade is it may make the housing around it too deep for some owner's tastes. Another issue is we have not seen how Tesla plans to implement it. Hopefully it won't look cheaply made like the current version of the vanity mirrors.

Larry
 
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I got my car on the 30th of September. I have about 1000 miles on the car since. On one particularly warm day in early October, I parked in the sun for about 4 hours at the ZPH airport. The car cooled quickly and I was very comfortable during the drive home. Keep in mind, I keep my home at 78 degrees so I may be a little more heat tolerant than most folks. I also plan on tinting the sides and rear hatch to reduce both light and heat transfer through those windows, but I don't plan on adding the shades unless the appear neat and nearly invisible when stowed. I prefer the clean lines of the roof as it is now. The tint on the rear hatch, Ibelieve is mor valuable because of the rear facing seats that will be installed (someday).
 
I got my car on the 30th of September. I have about 1000 miles on the car since. On one particularly warm day in early October, I parked in the sun for about 4 hours at the ZPH airport. The car cooled quickly and I was very comfortable during the drive home. Keep in mind, I keep my home at 78 degrees so I may be a little more heat tolerant than most folks. I also plan on tinting the sides and rear hatch to reduce both light and heat transfer through those windows, but I don't plan on adding the shades unless the appear neat and nearly invisible when stowed. I prefer the clean lines of the roof as it is now. The tint on the rear hatch, Ibelieve is mor valuable because of the rear facing seats that will be installed (someday).

Hi Klaus,

Good points.

Charlie mentioned this to me at your delivery party. She pointed out that you'll be having your grandkids in the rear facing seats, and there's no air conditioning vents located in the rear trunk space. So it makes a lot of sense to add tint in those areas that are not already tinted.

Larry
 
We've only had our car a couple of days, but it's not the winter sun that's bothersome. Actually, I've drove around yesterday mostly with the roof open (today was a little drizzly). The big test will be next summer.

Time to revisit this thread now that temps are in the 90s. I'm confident the roof is protecting enough from UVs but I can feel the heat radiating from the pano glass.

What are your views fellow Floridians?
 
Not a Florida member but had similar issues so I'd thought I would post. We had some issues with heat coming through the pano but we went and tinted the pano with 5% tint (Llumar in our case) and it made a significant difference in heat transmission. You can still look up and see the sky / sun but just darker, lol.
 
Honestly, I haven't noticed any heat. In fact, I usually forget I even have a pano roof because it blocks so much of the light. Spent nearly 2 hours stuck in traffic on the Courtney Campbell Causeway on Saturday between 12 and 2. Never had a problem even in the eco mode.
 
The only heat issues I have with the car are: (a) I'd like the A/C vents to have a slightly greater range of motion, since I sometimes can't point them exactly the way I'd like, and (b) I'd like to see some A/C airflow directed to the rear trunk for the little people in the third row. The pano roof hasn't bothered me at all in terms of heat transfer, though I do notice the top of my head is a little warmer than the rest of me. :)