“The amount they pay you for it, if you have an excess of what you use, is practically nothing,” Tobler says. While Tesla designs the roof to match energy needs, prospective buyers may find the idea of making some money by selling power back to the grid a tantalizing prospect. When the solar roof is harnessing energy and the Powerwall is fully charged, users can send the surplus energy back to the grid. Tobler's Tesla app illustration shows how much energy her appliances use. Fortunately, buyers can add more Powerwalls after installation. If my husband were to charge his car completely, it would deplete the entire Powerwall.”ĭepleting the solar power storage system while the roof is inactive, like during the night, means the system buys energy from the grid. “Having a second Powerwall would be pretty nice. “We only opted for one Powerwall ,” Tobler says. That can bring energy usage up to 10 kilowatts when charging with other people using electronics in the house, a significant change in usage. Tobler then bought a Chrysler Pacifica plug-in hybrid minivan, which has 40 miles of electric-only range. The Tesla app shows this uses between eight and nine kilowatts when charging. Originally, the family had one Nissan Leaf. “We added a second EV, but when they did their first estimates, I was not driving an EV,” Tobler says. Unfortunately, her energy uses changed after installation. Tobler provided one year’s worth of energy bills, far more than Tesla needed but enough to take an accurate reading. Tesla will ask for evidence of energy usage to take an average and design a roof to fit your needs. Not that it would have been a particularly wise investment. If you were dreaming of blowing all your cash on a super-powerful solar roof, you’ll have to think again. “My understanding is that with the Tesla solar roof, we can’t get a system bigger than this anyway,” Tobler says. That costs around $50,000 once the federal solar Investment Tax Credit is factored in, and it produces around 9.85 kilowatts of power - which Tesla told Tobler was “the biggest system we have available.” Tobler bought a roof of around 2,000 square foot, with 40 percent of installed tiles solar. The design of the tiles, patented recently, mean the two appear the same to the untrained eye to create a single roof. Tesla recommends $21.85 per square foot, based on 35 percent solar tiles. Solar tiles cost $42 per square foot, while non-solar costs $11 per square foot. Tesla does not suggest ordering an all-solar roof.
Tesla slate solar roof tiles Offline#
“We actually temporarily went offline and had a strip of tiles removed so the painter could put a ladder all around the edge.” “The solar tiles themselves are extremely strong and you can walk on them, but to be able to put ladders on some of the edge pieces, we were concerned about making sure everything stayed intact,” Tobler says. You’ll find these ones around the edges of the house, by the chimney, and anywhere else where Tesla needs to cut a tile to size. Unfortunately, the strong glass makes them unsuitable for cutting to size, so Tesla also produces a variety of non-solar tiles with weaker glass. It’s part of why Tesla can offer an “infinity” warranty on the tiles with 30 years coverage for its power-generating capabilities and weatherization. These eight all use a tempered glass three times stronger than slate or asphalt, as outlined in this Tesla animation: Each of these four comes in both solar and non-solar varieties.
Tuscan and slate styles are set to ship later. Tesla currently offers a textured style, which Tobler chose, as well as smooth. Tesla’s marketing literature suggests there’s eight different tiles available. Here are the eight things she learned after a month of powering her house with sunlight. Over a three-week period, the team battled with bouts of rain to finish the roof. In January of this year, Tesla got in touch to finalize details. In May 2017, just after pre-orders went live, she became one of the first buyers for Tesla’s techno-tiles. Unfortunately, the metal roof on her house built in 1965 meant no solar suppliers would place panels over the top. Tobler and her family, who have lived in California for 15 years, always wanted to go solar. “If you have the finances to be able to get on the list and do it sooner rather than not, I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again.” “It has definitely been a worthy endeavor,” Tobler tells Inverse. A month in, she shared with Inverse what it’s like to be an early adopting Tesla solar user. She switched on her newly-installed Tesla Solar Roof on her house San Jose, California, making her one of the first to take a step to realizing Elon Musk’s “house of the future” vision he unveiled on the Desperate Housewives set in October 2016.
0 kommentar(er)
