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New owner questions
- Thread starter SpokaneM3
- Start date
No such thing as solar panels for a Tesla. Solar panels won't provide much power anyway to be worth it (currently).
Don't know about Washington but you might have to shop around. Try all the big names. Insurance rate vary so much by location that it's hard to make recommendations. Also depends on the coverage you want.
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bjrosen
Member
I have dropped Geico for Allstate, it was a lot cheaper and they don't make you go to one of their shops to do repairs.
There are no solar panels for Teslas and they wouldn't make any sense if there were. There isn't enough surface area on the car to get you a significant amount of energy, if you want solar power put the panels on your roof. Aptera will have solar panels on their car and they claim they will be able to get 40 miles per day from them. Aptera can do this because they will be extremely efficient, 10 miles/KWh vs about 4.4 miles/KWh in the Model 3. There is also a big caveat with Aptera, it's 40 miles/day in San Diego, in other parts of the country you would be lucky to get 20 miles/day assuming you aren't parking in a garage or under a tree.
There are no solar panels for Teslas and they wouldn't make any sense if there were. There isn't enough surface area on the car to get you a significant amount of energy, if you want solar power put the panels on your roof. Aptera will have solar panels on their car and they claim they will be able to get 40 miles per day from them. Aptera can do this because they will be extremely efficient, 10 miles/KWh vs about 4.4 miles/KWh in the Model 3. There is also a big caveat with Aptera, it's 40 miles/day in San Diego, in other parts of the country you would be lucky to get 20 miles/day assuming you aren't parking in a garage or under a tree.
Cool idea, but totally impractical. Solar panels on normal passenger vehicles is a fools errand, period and end of story. Elon discussed it in depth on a Joe Rogan podcast. The only purpose they could serve would be in the form of a pop up array for the purpose of camping off the grid. It's a surface area problem. Sunlight has a finite amount of energy per square meter - and even if solar panels were 100% effective at capturing it (which they aren't, they're more like 20% effective) it just doesn't provide sufficient power to make it worth the additional cost, weight, etc. Even if the entire car was wrapped in solar panels, and you lived in the sunniest place in the world, it's just a waste. Giant flat surfaces that can rotate to catch the sun are most effective and efficient at generating electricity from solar power - and a car is literally the opposite of that. It is always going to be better to generate energy using a more effective method and then store it in your car using the batteries.
roblab
Active Member
It needs to be restated that solar panes produce VERY LITTLE power individually. I have 66 panels, and IF the sun shines, they might charge my car in a day. One or two panels mounted on a car do virtually nothing other than cut into your car's aerodynamics.
Rothgarr
Active Member
The best and most efficient means is like this. Our solar provides over 100% of our yearly electric needs, including all our Tesla charging.
Silicon Desert
Well-Known Member
For me, no it doesn't made any sense for the price and appearance compared to the benefit. Think about it. For that small footprint, you might get 1 KWh of power in a day if you're lucky. That's equal to about 8 cents where I live. And that amount of energy will let me drive about 3 miles in my MX.
That's awesome. Are they Tesla panels? What part of the country do you live in? What sort of output do you get? When you say it powers your home year round, I assume you mean your HVAC as well?
Rothgarr
Active Member
Connecticut. They are LG panels. It does power our HVAC, but our home was built with oil heat for the winter. Last year (2020) we made 21.6 MWh
MLXXXp
Member
All of your points are valid and I agree with them. Also consider that the panel rating is for full, face on, sunlight, which won't be the case most of the time except when the sun is directly overhead.
However, you forgot to account for the energy you save in less air conditioning by having an opaque roof, which results in less interior heating on those hot sunny days.
(But then again, you'd need more energy for interior heating on those cold sunny days.)
The Hyundai Ioniq 5 has an option for solar cells on its roof although they will not be available in the US when it goes on sales in a few months. They list them as getting 3 miles of range per day in areas with "a healthy amount" of sun.
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At least we know Hyundai has a sense of humor.
Hyundai's new electric car has a solar panel roof and can charge other EVs
Meet the new Hyundai Ioniq 5
There are some really strange numbers. 58kwh will get you 'up to 200km', whereas 72.6kwh will get you 'up to 500km'. I guess they could both be true, since they are both just 'up to' numbers, having 25% more battery probably doesn't get you 150% more range.
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bjrosen
Member
An ordinary roof instead of a glass roof is just as effective at keeping the car cooler. Unfortunately Elon deliberately removed the shade from the Model 3's design which forces us to use clip on shades to keep the sun out which are much less versatile than a shade that can be opened and closed.All of your points are valid and I agree with them. Also consider that the panel rating is for full, face on, sunlight, which won't be the case most of the time except when the sun is directly overhead.
However, you forgot to account for the energy you save in less air conditioning by having an opaque roof, which results in less interior heating on those hot sunny days.
MLXXXp
Member
If you mean compared to a solar panel roof, it depends. The roof will absorb light and convert it to heat and some of that heat will be conducted and radiated to the interior.
With a solar panel, some of that light will be converted to energy and fed to the battery, rather than being converted to heat. Depending on the colour and reflectivity of the roof and any insulation on the inside, an "ordinary" roof may, or may not, be as effective as a solar panel roof.
A 100% efficient (though not possible) solar roof wouldn't add heat to the interior at all (although the charging circuitry and internal resistance of the battery might). The same would be true for a 100% reflective "ordinary" roof (again, not possible but could come close).
bjrosen
Member
There are reflective shades for Tesla's, I have one but I haven't installed it yet.
Tam
Well-Known Member
@T-Mom: You seem to not believe Tesla CyberTruck with solar. It's in the news, and the patent was filed on 5/27/2021.
www.teslarati.com
And the 15 miles per day is from Elon Musk's tweet:
Tesla Cybertruck's Solar Panel Tonneau Cover comes to life in new patent
The Tesla Cybertruck’s many features are now appearing as patents that the automaker has submitted to the United States Patent Office, and one of the most notable is the tonneau, or truck bed cover. While the retractable design of the tonneau provides convenience at the touch of a button for...
www.teslarati.com
And the 15 miles per day is from Elon Musk's tweet:
SalisburySam
Active Member
My 2012 Nissan LEAF SL has a solar panel built in. Back then we all thought it actually was a big contributor to recharging the high voltage battery. As it turned out, it provides a minimal trickle charge to maintain the 12v battery, and doesn’t really do much for that either. It does provide a fun topic of conversation to those who may ask about it.
MLXXXp
Member
Reflective shades, on the inside of the glass, will not work as well as a reflective (on the outside) roof. Some of the light coming through the glass will be converted to a different wavelength when it hits the shade and won't be transmitted back out through the glass roof panel. That's how greenhouses work.
Very interesting how they vary so much state to state or people to people. I always shop around and for my previous C300 Geico was about the same as progressive, liberty mutual, and a few others at around $100/month. For the Model 3 Geico was around $80/mo with more coverage. Almost 3 years in now and my rate is actually down to $60/mo - with it being $40/mo for 6 month (maybe 12?) during the pandemic which they automatically reduced.
I definitely suggest to play around with comprehensive deductible in the policy configurators. Often times $100 deductible is only a few dollars difference from $1000 and worth it to me.
T-Mom
Banned
Enlighten me please. I'm not sure where you got that idea. Of course I have seen it in the news. It just makes no difference and no interest for me personally.
EDIT: If you are referring to the "dislike" tag, I simply mean I dislike the Tesla cyber truck with solar, not disagreeing with your post. Sorry about that. I will remove the confusion.
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