Tesla’s announcement to enter the solar roofing market earlier this year generated a lot of excitement, especially among Tesla car owners.
Tesla’s announcement to enter the solar roofing market earlier this year generated a lot of excitement, especially among Tesla car owners. Tesla’s solar shingles are a new take on solar roofing products since they aren’t solar panels installed on top of an existing roof, but actual shingles that come in several different varieties. The shingles look opaque to the naked eye but actually allow UV rays through where photovoltaic cells can then generate that into electricity for the home. On a typical home, less than half of the Tesla shingles will actually contain these photovoltaic cells but since the non solar shingles look exactly identical, the entire roof can look uniform unlike a traditional solar roof with panels in some places but not others.
Tesla began taking preorders for the shingles in May but installations won’t begin for customers until October at the earliest. They have only just announced this week that the very first Tesla solar roofs have been installed with all of the early adopters being employees of Tesla. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, was not surprisingly one of the first to get a Tesla roof.
Should you get one?
Tesla claims that not only are their solar shingles cheaper than traditional solar roofing options over their lifespan, they’re actually priced competitively with non-solar roofs after you account for energy savings. The problem is those savings are spread out over 30 years but the upfront cost for Tesla’s shingles is quite high. You’re probably better off discussing less expensive energy efficient roofing options with your Spokane roofing company at least until Tesla can release new iterations of their solar shingle that are more cost efficient.
Home improvement news brought to you by bartonroof.com
Source: fortune.com/2017/08/03/tesla-solar-roof-first-deliveries/