"It's not a thing on the roof, It's the roof!"

[HillCountryFun]

OK, who know's what Tesla/SolarCity is going to release in a few months but what if?

What if you could buy a roof that:

• Never needed replacing
• Looked beautiful
• Generated more power than your house consumes
• Integrated with the new Powerwall effortlessly
• Was expensive but was eligible for the Federal 30% tax credit
• Helped reduce your heating and cooling needs within your home
• Almost guaranteed to increase the value of your home

Is this what they're going to release?

Is this product possible?

Very interesting to be sure!!

 

[Drivin]

OK, who know's what Tesla/SolarCity is going to release in a few months but what if?

What if you could buy a roof that:

• Generated more power than your house consume?

Is this product possible?

!

That would need to be a big roof with a great orientation, or you are in a house that doesn't need AC in the summer, run a pool filter, run heat during the winter, etc.

There is a solar company advertising in our area (not SolarCity) that the person can run their AC all day and not pay any electricity. I don't see how that works out assuming that they also use other appliances.

 

[HillCountryFun]

That would need to be a big roof with a great orientation, or you are in a house that doesn't need AC in the summer, run a pool filter, run heat during the winter, etc.

I suspect that a product like this would:

• Generate power from 90%+ of the surface area of the roof
• Use the new Silevo production which is a higher level of production efficiency (e.g. 22%+)

So, it might be a significantly higher level of generation than a standard Solar Panel installation -

 

[JohnSnowNW]

Unless you've got an abnormally large roof, that is ideally situated, and you use less electricity than the average household...I'd say it would probably not cover daily needs.

I still really like the idea, and that tax incentives get you a new roof as well.

If we replaced the roof on our house and the detached garage we'd probably produce a fair amount. Might even make financial sense with the tax credit...but I'd need quite a bit more info.

 

[Topher]

Here is a house which has been doing precisely that for more than a decade. Welcome to the Maine Solar House

A properly made and insulated house should have no problems running solely on the solar output of their roof. For really frugal people, like me, you can do your house, plus your car, for half a roof's worth. All this for less per month than a corresponding electric bill.

Thank you kindly.

 

[HillCountryFun]

Here is a house which has been doing precisely that for more than a decade. Welcome to the Maine Solar House

Interesting, the Maine Solar House only has a 4.2KW system which was installed over 20 years ago. I would suspect they would enjoy a massive increase in overall power production with a newer system, especially a system using the Silevo technology.

 

[ReddyLeaf]

What if you could buy a roof that...

What you are talking about is Building-Integrated PV.

Edit: Mods, merge with this thread? Integrated solar roofs

Here's just one example from google images:

 

[Topher]

Interesting, the Maine Solar House only has a 4.2KW system which was installed over 20 years ago. I would suspect they would enjoy a massive increase in overall power production with a newer system, especially a system using the Silevo technology.

Solar panel efficiencies have not increased enough to make it worth completely replacing existing working panels. I haven't checked with them recently, but they used to be running a surplus (thus gifting it to the electric company), so no point in getting more capacity.

Thank you kindly.

 

[JohnSnowNW]

Here is a house which has been doing precisely that for more than a decade. Welcome to the Maine Solar House

A properly made and insulated house should have no problems running solely on the solar output of their roof. For really frugal people, like me, you can do your house, plus your car, for half a roof's worth. All this for less per month than a corresponding electric bill.

Thank you kindly.

The Avg. US household uses almost 3x as much energy as the solar house produces annually, though. Seems like you could run your house if you're frugal and it's purpose built for efficiency...but that's not the majority of houses in the US.

 

[Topher]

The Avg. US household uses almost 3x as much energy as the solar house produces annually, though. Seems like you could run your house if you're frugal and it's purpose built for efficiency...but that's not the majority of houses in the US.

Well you can upgrade your house. If you are wasting energy, then it is costing you money. The average savings, I see for cost effective energy savings is more than 50%. That pays for itself in less than 7 years. Then a solar system will then be sufficient, and that saves money as well. Win-win.

Thank you kindly.

 

[EV-lutioin]

Can't wait to go to Home Depot and have the super aggressive Solar City sales guys try to sell me a new roof!