Solar panels are extremely popular technology, and the Tesla Solar Roof is one of the latest developments and uses for this technology. Just how well does a Tesla Solar Roof work – and can you use it to power your entire house? We’ll discuss this and more in this article!
What Is A Tesla Solar Roof?
A Tesla Solar Roof is actually a remarkably simple concept to explain. In brief, a Tesla Solar Roof is exactly like a normal roof – except it uses small solar panels instead of the usual ceramic or slate tiles!
These special solar panels are actually called solar shingles or photovoltaic shingles. They are far smaller than the large solar panels that you may be used to seeing. However, they work in very much the exact same way. Pretty much the only differences between a solar shingle and a solar panel are in terms of size and appearance.
A solar shingle is much smaller than a typical solar panel, of course. Because of this, it can be used to make a roof much like any other roofing tile. And this is of course the second key difference between a solar shingle and a normal solar cell; a solar shingle is designed to look like a roof tile as well as being the same size as one.
This means that you can have a solar-powered house, yet with very little external evidence that there is any such technology on your house! Unlike regular solar panels which are extremely obvious and can often be considered unsightly, a Tesla Solar Roof looks essentially just like any other roof!
So for those looking to add solar technology to their house as a way of generating green electricity, a Tesla Solar Roof can be a great way to do this without making it obvious in any way that there are solar panels installed on your house. If you don’t like the look of solar panels then a Tesla Solar Roof may well be a better aesthetic choice for you!
Do They Work For Everybody?
They certainly do – although how well will of course depend on your needs, and how well the technology will work with your house.
The principal technology behind a solar roof – the solar shingle – is essentially no different from a regular solar cell. Really, the only significant difference between a solar shingle and a solar cell is the question of size. Therefore, it’s probably fair to say that a solar shingle will work precisely as well as a standard solar cell.
Of course, seeing as solar shingles are so much smaller than the average solar panel, you’ll need to make sure that you are covering the same area in order to be able to get the same power.
The roof of your house is a more complex thing that you may well have given it credit for. For a start, it’s the sole protector of your house from the rain in many cases! Therefore, fitting a new roof is not a task that should be taken lightly. You’ll have to do a lot of research to make sure that a Tesla Solar Roof is a good idea for you.
This is because, compared to both normal roofing tiles, and normal solar panels, a Tesla Solar Roof can require a much more complex installation procedure. Also, it’s just not possible for these tiles to work with every single roof. Some roofs are extremely complex, and the financial outlay alone can make it difficult for a Tesla Solar Roof to be justifiable when it comes to dealing with some of these more complex roofs.
Likewise, a Tesla Solar Roof weighs more than a normal roof – which can mean that reinforcement will have to be applied in order to successfully and safely fit these solar shingles. Depending on the design of your roof, and of course, its size and complexity, fitting a Tesla Solar Roof may well be prohibitively expensive.
Of course, relatively speaking the technology is in its very early days at the moment! It is entirely possible of course that as time goes on these solar shingles will become cheaper and easier to deal with!
Can A Tesla Solar Roof Power A House?
Realistically speaking, the answer to this question depends on the size of your roof and the amount of power that the devices in your house need. Therefore, if you’ve got a lot of extremely power-hungry devices and only a relatively small roof, You could well find that a Tesla Solar Roof simply isn’t efficient enough to provide all of the power that your house needs.
However for the most part it’s probably fair to say that a Tesla Solar Roof – given good weather conditions – can certainly provide the amount of power that your house will need. They are, after all, essentially not very different from a regular solar panel. Therefore, if a regular solar panel would be enough for your power needs, then a Tesla Solar Roof will certainly do the job for you too.
And of course, one extremely useful thing about a Tesla Solar Roof is that it must be used in conjunction with a Tesla Powerwall. A Tesla Powerwall is Tesla’s own proprietary battery solution. It provides a convenient way of storing unused energy generated from the solar roof for later use – after all, you may well not need all of the power that your roof generates on a bright sunny day until the evening! Without a way to store your energy, your solar roof would only have any use at all during daylight!
The power wall itself has a rated energy capacity of 14 kW hours. Now of course, whether this is enough power for your particular needs is dependent on your own life circumstances. However, it’s fair to say that for a lot of people, 14 kWh will power a lot of devices that would normally require mains electricity.
Will It Replace My Usual Electricity Supplier?
It’s probably better to think of a Tesla Solar Roof as something supplementary to your main electricity supply. While it is of course possible that your circumstances and energy needs might make a purely solar solution viable for you, most people will still need a regular mains electricity supply for day-to-day living.
In fact, even if your Tesla Solar Roof provides enough energy for you it’s probably still a smart idea for most people to keep their regular electricity supplier. While it might seem a great idea to be able to generate all of your electricity, at the very least it is extremely useful to have a backup option in case your solar roof develops an issue.
Furthermore, it may even be possible for you to sell energy to the grid rather than taking energy from it! If you have an excess of energy generated, you can actually feed this into the grid, and either be paid or receive money off your next bill. This is something that it’s absolutely worth checking with your energy supplier about!
Conclusion
Hopefully, this article will have helped you make an informed decision about whether a Tesla Solar Roof Is the right solution for your needs!