Solar Roof and Powerwall in Canada

[Struja]

To my fellow Canadians...

Have any of you purchased the Tesla Solar Roof tiles and Powerwall?

If so, can you talk a bit about cost and the amount of energy they produce? Have you become self sufficient in supplying your own energy? Do you have excess and if so, do you sell it back to the grid?

How much effect does the weather have on energy production? Cloudy rainy days vs. bright sunshine?

Does snowfall effect the roof? If so, how?

I have been thinking about this idea but for some reason I have a belief (not based on any actual knowledge) that Ontario would not be an ideal location for a Solar Roof. Again, that isn't based on anything than an assumption, so I'd love to hear about your experiences, especially for those who live in Southern Ontario.

 

[wayner]

I am pretty sure that the Solar Roof is not shipping in Canada right now, and I am not sure that it is shipping in the US either. [sarcasm]I know it is hard to believe for Tesla but this product is behind schedule.[/sarcasm]

Many of the questions that you ask are not unique to the Tesla Solar Roof - they are the same for all solar panels. The weather does play a huge role in how much power you produce. I have solar panels and you can see my daily production here. I had almost a week of zero production when my panels were covered in snow. The best days will be when it is near the summer solstice and when it is not too hot as heat will reduce the efficiency of the panels.

The return on investment will depend on the regulatory and pricing regime. Ontario just recently ended microFIT which was a program where the province/utilities bought power from homeowners of solar panels and above-market prices. I installed my panels in 2015 which cost about $31k and I earn $0.384/kWh. I should average about $4500/yr in revenue so I have a seven year payback ignoring taxes. But with microFIT you couldn't use batteries.

The current regime is net-metering which allows you to net your production against consumption. But when you do net-metering you are not allowed to be on Time of Use pricing, just tiered pricing.

There are several threads in this Canada sub-forum on this issue - look for other threads on the Solar Roof.

One other thing to consider is the more that the government screws with the electricity system the less economical it is to install panels. Whenever the governments subsidizes electricity rates (like they are doing right now) they lower the ROI of solar panels. And the Ontario governments has ALWAYS f&*#ed with the electricity grid in the 100+ years of history of electricity generation in Ontario.

 

[Struja]

I am pretty sure that the Solar Roof is not shipping in Canada right now, and I am not sure that it is shipping in the US either. [sarcasm]I know it is hard to believe for Tesla but this product is behind schedule.[/sarcasm]

Many of the questions that you ask are not unique to the Tesla Solar Roof - they are the same for all solar panels. The weather does play a huge role in how much power you produce. I have solar panels and you can see my daily production here. I had almost a week of zero production when my panels were covered in snow. The best days will be when it is near the summer solstice and when it is not too hot as heat will reduce the efficiency of the panels.

The return on investment will depend on the regulatory and pricing regime. Ontario just recently ended microFIT which was a program where the province/utilities bought power from homeowners of solar panels and above-market prices. I installed my panels in 2015 which cost about $31k and I earn $0.384/kWh. I should average about $4500/yr in revenue so I have a seven year payback ignoring taxes. But with microFIT you couldn't use batteries.

The current regime is net-metering which allows you to net your production against consumption. But when you do net-metering you are not allowed to be on Time of Use pricing, just tiered pricing.

There are several threads in this Canada sub-forum on this issue - look for other threads on the Solar Roof.

One other thing to consider is the more that the government screws with the electricity system the less economical it is to install panels. Whenever the governments subsidizes electricity rates (like they are doing right now) they lower the ROI of solar panels. And the Ontario governments has ALWAYS f&*#ed with the electricity grid in the 100+ years of history of electricity generation in Ontario.

That was f'ng awesome. Thanks!

 

[Tony_YYZ]

I'd really want to know if it would make sense to consider just a powerwall in the future. Main reasons for wanting it are to protect against blackouts and for power stability.

The added benefit of charging it up during the night during off-peak hours and then drawing from it during peak hours. It's a bit too expensive to consider right now but maybe by Gen 3 it might be more attractive.

Thoughts?

 

[wayner]

I think for now you are better off with a NatGas generator. It’s cheaper and can last a lot longer.

The peak vs off-peak arb isn’t very large and if you do that you run the risk of being discharged when you want it for backup.

 

[emdtr]

I think for now you are better off with a NatGas generator. It’s cheaper and can last a lot longer.

The peak vs off-peak arb isn’t very large and if you do that you run the risk of being discharged when you want it for backup.

What do you mean by "you run the risk of being discharged when you want it for backup"?

Thanks

 

[Lloyd]

I have a solar roof on order, I was told that I could expect installation late 2019.

 

[wayner]

What do you mean by "you run the risk of being discharged when you want it for backup"?

If you planned to charge up the battery at night and then run it down during the day on a regular basis then if a power outage hit in the afternoon/evening when you had drained the batteries the it wouldn’t be very useful as a backup source of electricity.

 

[Vawlkus]

There are import issues for the powerwalls ATM. One of my coworkers son was working on trying to resolve that a few months ago, but I don’t think he’s succeeded yet.
I’ve heard tell that a government installation is currently testing them somewhere in NS, but I don’t have that confirmed, nor any specific details yet.

 

[Bitjockey]

After almost 2 years of waiting for my Powerwall 2, it's finally being installed at my cottage next week. Later will add 6.5kw of solar panels. Will update once I have some history on it.

 

[thesteve]

After almost 2 years of waiting for my Powerwall 2, it's finally being installed at my cottage next week. Later will add 6.5kw of solar panels. Will update once I have some history on it.

How were you notified about the powerwall ready to install? They contact you via email or phone? Also reserved around two years ago not a peep yet

 

[Bitjockey]

I dealt with Greenside Electric in Huntsville, who were the first to install a Powerwall in Canada. They in turn had to order my PW2 from Mpower, who distributes the PW2 in Canada. After paying up front for my PW2 back in January (despite putting my deposit down with Tesla in Nov 2016), I started complaining about no firm delivery date. I also raised a stink about who was sitting on my full payment for the PW2; was it Greenside, was it Mpower, or was it Tesla? I had numerous phone conversations with Mpower, as well as one with Tesla in NJ. It turns out Mpower was sitting on my payment. In the end, Tesla refunded my deposit, and Mpower offered to refund my payment but I held out.

Day 1 of my install was yesterday, Greenside just showed up to continue installation today.

 

[thesteve]

I dealt with Greenside Electric in Huntsville.

So I take it they only work in Huntsville not Toronto? Any companies do PW install in Toronto?

 

[wayner]

Huntsville makes sense as PV and battery companies will allow you to be off the grid. I imagine there are cottagers who have had to pay a fortune to get connected to the grid, especially if they are on islands in some place like Lake of Bays. Now those folks don't need to be connected to the grid.

 

[RAM_Eh]

I dealt with Greenside Electric in Huntsville, who were the first to install a Powerwall in Canada. They in turn had to order my PW2 from Mpower, who distributes the PW2 in Canada. After paying up front for my PW2 back in January (despite putting my deposit down with Tesla in Nov 2016), I started complaining about no firm delivery date. I also raised a stink about who was sitting on my full payment for the PW2; was it Greenside, was it Mpower, or was it Tesla? I had numerous phone conversations with Mpower, as well as one with Tesla in NJ. It turns out Mpower was sitting on my payment. In the end, Tesla refunded my deposit, and Mpower offered to refund my payment but I held out.

Day 1 of my install was yesterday, Greenside just showed up to continue installation today.

Love to see pictures and setup, please keep us informed.

 

[Bitjockey]

My PW2 installation was completed today; it took roughly 1.5 people 2.5 days to install it, so almost 4 man days. They mounted the PW2 near my main service panel in the basement. I wired a subpanel with all of my critical loads on it when I built the cottage almost 25 years ago. They had to replace that subpanel with a new one (100A) that had more capacity for the solar panels and future PW2s. They also had to install a disconnect outside the building, even so the gateway has it's own disconnect.

Greenside was extremely competent with the install; the only snag was logging into the gateway, which required entering the serial number as the password. Well, that didn't work, both with wireless and wired Ethernet. Several calls to Telsa Energy, and we finally were told that we needed to append the letter "S" in front of the serial number! It worked. There were a few discrepancies in the documentation vs what we saw in real life, to be expected.

I couldn't access the PW2 with my app, and the Telsa support person told me I should log out and log in again to my account, it worked. I can now flip between our 2 Tesla's and the PW2.

I'm sharing some pics, took many more during the process. The cardboard box for the PW2 had a panel which stated "Built at the Tesla Gigafactory, Sparks, Nevada".

 

[wayner]

Is that amount of labour typical? How much does 4 man days cost? That has to be about $2-3K, doesn't it?

 

[RAM_Eh]

Is this installed in a basement? any concern if so on flooding? Battery pack is almost on the ground.

 

[Bitjockey]

Is that amount of labour typical? How much does 4 man days cost? That has to be about $2-3K, doesn't it?

It's more than labour, there is shipping cost for the 300lb PW2 and the gateway. Also lots of wiring. All told I paid about $16K for 1 PW2 installed. But part of this cost will support solar panels that will be installed in September.

 

[Bitjockey]

Is this installed in a basement? any concern if so on flooding? Battery pack is almost on the ground.

They asked me if I ever had any flooding in the basement, and I told them I did have a pipe burst which caused about 1" of water to flood the basement. Nonetheless, they only lifted it marginally above the floor. I'm hoping all will be OK (fingers crossed).