Post Your Tesla Solar Layout

[pdx_m3s]

Any suggestions on how to maximize this layout?

View attachment 578648

You would have to get rid of and/or re-route vents. You may be able to get 4 additional panels to be south facing, although that southwest facing panel may be a no-go. May not be worth it for such a small increase in production. Unfortunately they don't build houses with solar panels in mind, even today.

 

[pdx_m3s]

There's a tree but we keep it well trimmed, thanks for the pointer for the vents I'll look in to dealing with them.

If you dealt with the two vents on the lower south-facing roof, you would be able to move your 3 north-facing panels there.

 

[jdmte30]

Here is my layout.

 

[pdx_m3s]

Here is my layout.
View attachment 578713

Looks great. If it were me, I'd max out that roof plane. It looks like you can fit an additional 4-6 panels (perhaps more if you dealt with those pesky roof vents).

 

[jdmte30]

Looks great. If it were me, I'd max out that roof plane. It looks like you can fit an additional 4-6 panels (perhaps more if you dealt with those pesky roof vents).

Last year my total kWh was only 5200, but I figured since I now have an electric car and will be using my Jacuzzi, I should have more than enough.

 

[hurjio]

Last year my total kWh was only 5200, but I figured since I now have an electric car and will be using my Jacuzzi, I should have more than enough.

Did you initially order the small system and ask them to add panels? Did you wait for them to generate initial layout and then ask to add additional panels, or were you able to let them know right when you ordered? I'm also interested in adding some panels to the small system size.

 

[jdmte30]

Did you initially order the small system and ask them to add panels? Did you wait for them to generate initial layout and then ask to add additional panels, or were you able to let them know right when you ordered? I'm also interested in adding some panels to the small system size.

I ordered the small system and texted my advisor that I wanted 16 panels and after a few attempts (kept sending me 15 panel setup), they got it right. You can also email [email protected] and they are pretty good at responding with the corrections.

 

[TC_HTX]

FYI, after talking to my advisor he said when you get PTO call in. Otherwise you go in a queue with everyone else and you have to wait your turn. But if you call in, you're automatically moved up to the front of the queue to get activation.

 

[Pyser]

Have some big trees on the east side so would like to move those panels. The southernmost vents in the middle (on either side of the chimney) are very flat, wondering if panels can go above them. Would love thoughts.

 

[arthurk192]

Hi All...this is the automated design (assuming automated since its Sunday and it was done a few hours after I paid $100) i specifically said I didn't want panels at the front of the house but the system ignored that. I'm hoping to email and call tomorrow morning to see if i can get the layout changed to have all of the panels at the back of the house and possible some on the small southern section. Check out the layout and images of my house and let me know if i'm crazy for asking them to adjust this.

 

[pdx_m3s]

Hi All...this is the automated design (assuming automated since its Sunday and it was done a few hours after I paid $100) i specifically said I didn't want panels at the front of the house but the system ignored that. I'm hoping to email and call tomorrow morning to see if i can get the layout changed to have all of the panels at the back of the house and possible some on the small southern section. Check out the layout and images of my house and let me know if i'm crazy for asking them to adjust this.View attachment 579977 View attachment 579985
View attachment 579986

You're going to have a substantially handicapped system in not allowing panels on your largest, highest-producing roof plane (i.e. the front of your house). Your west-northwest facing plane is littered with penetrations, and the north-facing plane would be absolute last-resort (for me) given it's orientation and large tree to the southwest.

Are you not allowed to have panels on the front of your house? If front of house is a no-go, I would consider dealing with the vents on the west-northwest plane first. 36 panels will not fit your current roof with all of those penetrations and not utilizing the front of your house.

 

[TC_HTX]

Install was originally scheduled for Thursday, but given Marco & Laura are uncertainties on their way to Houston I went ahead and called and was able to reschedule for September 14th. Wish I could have held onto Thursday, but that's probably the most unpredictable day so far.

 

[SMAlset]

Man weather is playing havoc all over. Last week we had rescheduled our date to finish (?) to Friday but it got nixed when smoke got too bad. Reset for today. Thankfully the rain and dry lightning that was expected here for Sun-today at 5pm didn’t materialize and teams were back at 8am. Wind direction was in our favor gor air quality. Not an easy install due to existing equipment in garage but I do like how they ended up planning it out. More later. Keeping fingers crossed the winds stay favorable. Firefighters got a break finally but man these wildfire areas are massive in size. Good luck with your weather.

 

[arthurk192]

You're going to have a substantially handicapped system in not allowing panels on your largest, highest-producing roof plane (i.e. the front of your house). Your west-northwest facing plane is littered with penetrations, and the north-facing plane would be absolute last-resort (for me) given it's orientation and large tree to the southwest.

Are you not allowed to have panels on the front of your house? If front of house is a no-go, I would consider dealing with the vents on the west-northwest plane first. 36 panels will not fit your current roof with all of those penetrations and not utilizing the front of your house.

Thanks for the review @pdx_m3s. I would have thought the west-northwest side would be the better producing plane. Is that not correct? I can ask about moving vents. I'm not sure how complicated or costly that will be but i'm also having the roof replaced so the roofers can also do that at a better rate if i can tell them where to move the vents or what to replace them with.

I have no restrictions for the front of the house other than my spouse who doesn't want them there I may need to have a chat with her about the front side as well as look into downsizing to a 8kW option. Do you think 8kW would fit without having to move anything? I'm currently in escrow so I have no idea what my utility usage will be so I'm guessing on sizing based on 4,900 sft house and 2 AC units.

 

[GuyHall]

Just got our Solar Glass installation completed.

Supposed to generate 22 kW. We're seeing a max under 7 kW. Daily generation runs about 30 kWh over the last 4 days. Should add that we have smoke in our area (unhealthy level), but this seems far too low.

Reported to Tesla today and they're looking into it.

 

[miimura]

Just got our Solar Glass installation completed.

Supposed to generate 22 kW. We're seeing a max under 7 kW. Daily generation runs about 30 kWh over the last 4 days. Should add that we have smoke in our area (unhealthy level), but this seems far too low.

Reported to Tesla today and they're looking into it.

You're not going to get a decent idea of what it will really generate until you get a clear day. Also, so much of your array is facing North, you will never reach the DC rated output. I think on a good clear day, you might peak at 16kW with that array. I just pulled that number out of my rear, but the magnitude is correct.

 

[wjgjr]

You're not going to get a decent idea of what it will really generate until you get a clear day. Also, so much of your array is facing North, you will never reach the DC rated output. I think on a good clear day, you might peak at 16kW with that array. I just pulled that number out of my rear, but the magnitude is correct.

Probably not a bad guess - might be even a touch lower.

For reference, solar glass roof, exactly 50/50 split between north- (7 degrees) and south-facing roof. Our max yesterday was hit right around solar noon on a mostly clear day (and based on the location of @GuyHall at a similar latitude) at 5.3 kW on an 8.2 kW DC system. This might imply something in the low 14 kW range since this system is also roughly 50/50 north/south.

The daily number of 30 kWh is definitely well below what you should be getting in perfectly clear skies - I would guess in the general vicinity of 80 is more likely if there are no obstructions. However, I really have no idea what the smoke situation is like. The other question would be how many inverters there are and if this indicates one may either not be working properly or not be properly reporting if it is running.

 

[GuyHall]

You're not going to get a decent idea of what it will really generate until you get a clear day. Also, so much of your array is facing North, you will never reach the DC rated output. I think on a good clear day, you might peak at 16kW with that array. I just pulled that number out of my rear, but the magnitude is correct.

So I haven't completely freaked out yet because of the smoke, and would expect some drop in production. However, this seems to be more than I would have expected.

And, I assume the Tesla numbers reflect the orientation of the roof?

• Solar Roof system size: 21.98472 kW DC
• Estimated gross annual electricity production in kilowatt-hours (kWh) from your Solar Roof in Year 1: 25,259 kWh

One 365th of the 25,259 kWh would have an average production of about 70 kWh. One would expect August to be higher than the average, even with smoke.

 

[woferry]

What's your inverter setup (how many, what size)? That probably gives a better idea the real peak Tesla expects for the system, and you'll never produce more than the max inverter output, anyway. For example my 13.32kWp system (17,091kWh estimated first year production) has 10.4kW worth of inverters, and I think I've been above 10kW for maybe a total of 30 minutes or less over the past 15+ months (all cloud-edge, the best case cool & sunny days peak around 9kW). What you're seeing definitely sounds off, but hard to tell if it's more like 1/2 or 1/3 of what you should expect.

 

[GuyHall]

What's your inverter setup (how many, what size)? That probably gives a better idea the real peak Tesla expects for the system, and you'll never produce more than the max inverter output, anyway. For example my 13.32kWp system (17,091kWh estimated first year production) has 10.4kW worth of inverters, and I think I've been above 10kW for maybe a total of 30 minutes or less over the past 15+ months (all cloud-edge, the best case cool & sunny days peak around 9kW). What you're seeing definitely sounds off, but hard to tell if it's more like 1/2 or 1/3 of what you should expect.

Tesla installed 3 inverters. Don't know the size.