Just got a call for Powerwall...

[lukex4]

I wonder how well the new solar roof will work in Canada? It makes a lot of sense to have PV roofing products, hopefully they can come up with a version that slightly heats the tiles to melt snow.

Elon mentionned on Twitter that will be the case:

Solar glass tiles can also incorporate heating elements, like rear defroster on a car, to clear roof of snow and keep generating energy

 

[S'toon]

Elon mentionned on Twitter that will be the case:

I was thinking about that. We can get a foot or so of snow at a time. Now, let's say your roof melted all that snow. Where does it go? Into the eavestrough, where at -25 it starts freezing very rapidly. Soon the eavestrough starts getting full and heavy. It falls off, or you get an ice dam. Not a good solution.

 

[wayner]

I was thinking about that. We can get a foot or so of snow at a time. Now, let's say your roof melted all that snow. Where does it go? Into the eavestrough, where at -25 it starts freezing very rapidly. Soon the eavestrough starts getting full and heavy. It falls off, or you get an ice dam. Not a good solution.

It may depend on exactly how cold it is and whether the melted snow will make it through the eavestroughs before freezing. You're right that at -25 it isn't going to make it but at temps just under zero you might be ok. And then there is the issue of how frequently (if ever) does it warm up enough for that ice frozen in the troughs and downspouts melt? Here I southern Ontario it generally doesn't stay below freezing all winter so we may be okay. But in colder parts of the country that isn't always the case.

Don't forget that snow is mainly air and there is roughly a 10:1 ratio of snow to water so 30cm of snow is about 3cm of water.

 

[S'toon]

It may depend on exactly how cold it is and whether the melted snow will make it through the eavestroughs before freezing. You're right that at -25 it isn't going to make it but at temps just under zero you might be ok. And then there is the issue of how frequently (if ever) does it warm up enough for that ice frozen in the troughs and downspouts melt? Here I southern Ontario it generally doesn't stay below freezing all winter so we may be okay. But in colder parts of the country that isn't always the case.

Don't forget that snow is mainly air and there is roughly a 10:1 ratio of snow to water so 30cm of snow is about 3cm of water.

Here in SK we stay below -20 for a month to 6 weeks. We can be guaranteed below -30 for a couple of weeks most winters.

 

[electracity]

Heating elements for driveways generally need to be activated at the beginning of the snowstorm. The moisture evaporates, it doesn't run off.

On a roof with a medium pitch I suspect snow would slide off. Low pitch roofs are not common in areas with high snowfall.

 

[Hugh Mannity]

I wonder how well the new solar roof will work in Canada? It makes a lot of sense to have PV roofing products, hopefully they can come up with a version that slightly heats the tiles to melt snow.

The second question is how it works in the regulatory regime? In Ontario the microFIT program was very generous in terms of the FIT that you received but that has changed somewhat and under that program you couldn't battery storage, nor could you have more than 10kW of rated capacity.

I installed solar panels last summer for ab out $31k and I received $5k in revenue over the first 12 months. But the FIT has gone down from $0.38 to $0.29 and they put new applications on hold.

Southern Alberta is an excellent place for a PV roof, one of the sunniest places in the world