Here’s what GAF Energy’s president, Martin DeBono said about Tesla’s integrated roof: “I think that Tesla has it absolutely right. They’re playing the long game, as are we. The industry will evolve from rack-mounted to BIPV.”
pv magazine has been tracking Tesla’s solar roof tile installations around the San Francisco Bay Area, and while Tesla might to be falling short of the 1,000 roof installs per week envisioned by CEO Elon Musk, we’ve seen enough to make some observations.
- Tesla has been targeting simple shed or gable roofs with a minimum of roof features
- No microinverters or optimizers are being used.
- While a standard shingle roof remove-and-install typically takes eight hours over two days, according to DeBono, the Tesla installs we’ve tracked are running ten days to two weeks and requiring a team of five to six people — with additional people brought in to install storage and electrics.
- The roofs are subjectively better looking than the composite shingles they are replacing. In some cases, they are better looking than the house they protect.
- Every box of shingles we examined came from Changzhou, China.
Here’s a before-and-after of a home in San Jose, California. The garage structure is also equipped with tiles.
According to Redfin, this is a 2,345 square-foot Silicon Valley home valued at $1.2 million — now with a new Tesla roof.
And a shade tree.
This is a version 2 install in Berkeley, California.
The owner of this home documented the installation in detail with specs, videos and photos.
This is a Version 3 installed by the Josh Pomilio crew that’s documented by the owner with real-time solar output, specs and details. This installation includes two Tesla battery units and three inverters, according to the home owners.
Austin Flack provided a video of his solar roof tile installation that includes the economics of the roof tile along with a bonus drone crash. He told pv magazine that the “install went fairly smoothly. Took 7 days, they originally estimated 5.”
Dana Hull reports in Bloomberg on Tesla early adopters in San Ramon, California and their $83,000 solar roof-plus-battery storage installation.
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“In some cases, they are better looking than the house they protect.”
– this would be us. I have been considering going Tesla roof. Estimate from Tesla website wasn’t too bad. One of my issues is that we have a swamp cooler so I have to go up on the roof at least twice a year to turn it on and off (hint: it’s way more than twice a year). I am not sure how walkable the tiles are.
@John, I’m getting my roof installed now and have been up there to check on the job. As long as the pitch of your roof isn’t too steep and it’s dry they’re not too bad to walk on. You do have to be careful but it’s not super slippery. Wouldn’t want to walk on them if wet though as they’re certainly more slippery than composite.