The Tesla solar roof.
It's real, it's wonderful, and
it's on my house,
in fact, as far as I can tell, I'm one of the
first people in the world to have a Tesla solar
roof version three installed on my home.
And in this video, I'll explain how the cost of
the solar roof compared to opting for a
conventional roof plus Tesla solar panels,
discuss the ordering and installation process,
and examine details of the final product.
Also, if you stick around till the end, you get
to see a clip of me crashing my drone
while filming this video.
When the Tesla solar roof was announced in
October 2016, it seemed like a revolutionary
product, but three years later
it was beginning to seem like vaporware
until, in October of 2009,
Tesla announced version three of the solar roof,
now dubbed Solar Glass, and promised
that installations would finally begin in the
coming weeks.
It just so happened that a few months prior, my
wife and I had tried to get Tesla solar panels
installed only to discover that our roof was to
quote, a local roofing company, "very
poorly installed by someone who is most
definitely not a roofer" and that our roof
was almost certainly their "first attempt at
roofing".
Yikes.
So the prospect of upgrading to a brand new solar
glass roof was obviously attractive.
But first, we had to compare the cost against our
conventional composite roof, plus a roughly
equivalent Tesla solar panel array.
Estimates for a composite tile roof ranged from
nine to twelve thousand dollars.
Meanwhile, Tesla estimated that because of our
homes layout and shade considerations, we would
need a nine point zero nine kilowatt solar glass
system to replace our current electrical bill
and leave some room for our energy needs to grow.
Our quote from Tesla was four thirty three
thousand seven hundred and forty nine dollars
after rebates. If we estimate that an
equivalently sized solar panel installation
would cost about eighteen thousand seven hundred
dollars, the price premium for a solar glass
roof came out to approximately three thousand
dollars, a price that we found reasonable
given the enhanced aesthetics of solar glass and
how much value it might add to our home.
On January 6th, installation finally began.
The process took a total of seven days,
including the removal of our old roof,
installation of the tiles,
replacement of all vents, pipes and flashings,
and electrical wiring and hardware hookups.
Our roof is made up almost entirely of solar
capable tiles, with some dummy non-solar
tiles cut to fit around the vents and pipes and
along the edge of the roof.
The entire roof is raised about an inch and a
half off the living space for wiring
and allowing for ventilation.
The power from the tiles goes through these two
conduits into our attic and then a conjoined
conduit runs out the side of our home and into
this DC inverter.
From there it passes through two shut off
switches before plugging into our 200 amp
electrical box.
Unfortunately, at this time, we are still waiting
for final approval to turn on the system.
But it should happen shortly and I will post a
brief update video when we finally get permission
to operate.
For now, we are very happy with the solar glass.
It's beautiful. It's durable.
It's guaranteed for 25 years, and
when fully operational, it will completely zero
out our electrical bill.
If you have any questions about the roof or our
experience, please don't hesitate to ask them in
the comments section below.
Also, if you place an order for a solar
installation with our referral code, we both get
a 250 dollar reward.
And if you decide to purchase a model 3 or a
model X or something, we both earn a thousand
miles of free supercharging plus a chance to win
a Model Y or a Tesla Roadster.
Thanks so much for watching.
And as promised, here's that video of me crashing
my drone.