Interesting that they're doing roof work in the winter. I assumed it was spring-to-fall scheduling, but I guess not.
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Anybody here waiting for Solar Roof?
- Thread starter DrDabbles
- Start date
Powerwalls (3) and gateway were installed yesterday, but main panel work pushed to next week due a missing piece in our panel. Solar roof install date pushed to Monday 6/28. The roof just arrived... Seeing the delivery, I can see why ensuring the roof is structurally sound is required. That's a LOT of material.
Day one of our solar glass roof install was yesterday after a series of postponements attributed to New England weather. Not much to see on the roof itself as most of they day was doing underlayment prep. Here are a few shots of the materials - the active solar glass roof tile itself, an example of the passive which come in many sizes, and all the interconnect wiring that electrically connect all the active tiles together. The crew thinks it'll take a solid week to complete the install due to size and roof complexity. They've done simple rooves in a day.
The active panels came from giga-buffalo per the shipping labels. I believe the passive tiles came are made in china though.
The active panels came from giga-buffalo per the shipping labels. I believe the passive tiles came are made in china though.
This has been a very slow going project... After 3 1/2 days of work (Tue-Wed + 1/2 day Sat), they have done a little more than 1/3 of the roof, plus all of the enabling electrical work including the powerwalls. The 1/2 day Saturday visit with smaller crew was mostly to do the shed roof on our property, with some additional work on the house as well. They think they have another full week of work to finish things up. Including a few images of the mostly completed back side of the roof, the shed, and the roof layout with highlighted portions completed.
Which way is south? That's a lot of solar on non-south facing roof sections. Did they explain how that would effect your production?
My shed doesn't top this - a mailbox. This is not mine. I forget where I found this photo - probably on facebook.
As of this afternoon, our roof finally done. Three LONG weeks of construction resulting in the roof pictured below. We still have a little interior finish work remaining for three skylights assigned to a sub. We hope to see the electrical inspection this coming week, with PTO to happen eventually once the subs are done (Tesla won't request PTO until after final payment is made, and that's not happening until after the subs are done).
They ended up installing some active tiles by the chimney to offset some they couldn't install in other areas of the roof. End result was still a 14.5kW system. Maximum yield during the first/only day with the system on while they tested was about 9kW at 2pm.
They ended up installing some active tiles by the chimney to offset some they couldn't install in other areas of the roof. End result was still a 14.5kW system. Maximum yield during the first/only day with the system on while they tested was about 9kW at 2pm.
Would you mind disclosing the square footage covered, number of PowerWalls, and final cost? Thank you.
Tesla installed 248 active PV solar glass tiles @ 58.47W rated output each for a total of 14.5 kW with two Tesla 7.6 kW inverters. There are also passive solar glass tiles of varying sizes and lots of metal trim pieces to complete the roof. I have three Powerwalls rated at 40.5 kWh total storage capacity.
The final cost was of the system was $88k. This of course is offset by the federal solar tax credit and a Mass $1k solar tax credit this year. I also signed up for the local utility's virtual powerplant "ConnectedSolutions" program which should provide a decent offset to the powerwall's costs over time, and of course net metering.
Was this capital investment worth it? Questionable at the price paid. We did need a new roof.
Don't really know as I've never pursued that option. Guessing more (high end tile roof + solar), but that's just a guess.
Our roof needs replacing and I've started looking into Tesla Solar Roof. Doesn't seem to be a lot in this forum so hope folks don't mind me replying to this older thread.
@Tdreamer - Nice looking roof, and house! Now that your system has been live for almost 3 years, what's your verdict on the Tesla Solar roof? Would you recommend it?
I wouldn't normally consider such an expensive roof, except our roof already needs replacing, and for the after-tax price of a metal roof (my 2nd choice) I could get a metal/glass roof that makes energy, and stores it (assuming only 1-2 powerwalls).
Almost 3 years? Can't believe it's been that long. The Solar Roof continues to work well; hard to tell if there has been any degradation in output in such a short time (last year produced less than the year before, but one data point does not make a trend). No service visits on the roof, but we have had one powerwall develop an internal issue for which Tesla came out and replaced it earlier this year. We didn't notice any issues with the powerwall or system as a whole other than an alert in the app that service was needed.
The two items that come to mind to think of that may not be obvious when considering a Tesla solar roof (or metal roof in general):
Not sure what the future will bring for the Solar Roof product. I know they've continued to iterate on design and installation procedures to simplify and reduce cost. I think their answer is getting certified roofers to install them, and not hire employees to do it except perhaps in areas where they can justify hiring their own roofing team.
Here are a few screenshots from the app showing our lifetime generation, a solid output form last May and from a sunny late April day yesterday. And... just one more thing... the last image uniquely illustrates what happens during an eclipse.
And for fun, here was our solar generation on the recent sunny day of April 8th, 2024. Fun seeing a graphical illustration of the eclipse at 90%+.
The two items that come to mind to think of that may not be obvious when considering a Tesla solar roof (or metal roof in general):
- Snowvalanches. Snow does not stick to the solar roof - or if it does, not for very long. After minimal accumulation on our roof it comes cascading off in large waves. This can crush flower/shrub beds around a house if in the landing zone. Somehow, in our case, it totally avoids all plantings around the areas of the house that have them. The two areas where it's a problem is in front of one garage bay (easily plowed), and on the back deck right near stairs descending to the back yard. This can create an issue, as piles of the stuff from the roof are super heavy and like cement. The upside to snowvalanches is that for most snowstorms there is a very short time where production is reduced before things clear off.
- Gutter cleaning, if you need it and don't do it yourself, may be challenging to find a someone to come do. We had a company doing our gutters annually for years and when they came the first year after our solar roof was installed, they didn't even bother getting out of the truck - they left w/o servicing us and only after a call to the company we learned they won't go near metal roofs due to liability with their ladders possibly damaging them. We don't get many leaves in ours, so not a big deal. We've not yet tried to find someone to replace the previous company.
Not sure what the future will bring for the Solar Roof product. I know they've continued to iterate on design and installation procedures to simplify and reduce cost. I think their answer is getting certified roofers to install them, and not hire employees to do it except perhaps in areas where they can justify hiring their own roofing team.
Here are a few screenshots from the app showing our lifetime generation, a solid output form last May and from a sunny late April day yesterday. And... just one more thing... the last image uniquely illustrates what happens during an eclipse.
And for fun, here was our solar generation on the recent sunny day of April 8th, 2024. Fun seeing a graphical illustration of the eclipse at 90%+.
What do you suppose the payback calculation would be on a roof over a 4000 sq.ft. house?
