Tesla Solar Roof vs Solar Panels: Which is Worth It?

Well, I thought it might be interesting to compare my house to another house from here in New England that does have a Solar Roof. A friend of the channel, Paul Braren, invited me into his house to check out his setup. Both his system and my system were installed last year, so I thought it’d be really interesting to compare the two, the reasons why we did what we did, the costs, and our initial thoughts. By the end, maybe we’ll be able to figure out an answer to my question…why aren’t we seeing more solar roofs?

Special thanks:

Robert Brickley from Close Jensen & Miller, for the drone footage and photos of Paul’s house.

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[trevorksanders]

I think it is because the Solar Roof wing of Telsa is terrible. I signed a contract for a roof, heard nothing for months, then got an email saying the cost was increasing by more than 50% without anyone ever coming out to my house. I decided to just cancel.

[jeremybrowning]

I spoke to 2 installers in the Ohio area about the Solar Roof. Both quoted me prices around $180k which is about half the value of my home. So there was just no way to justify that cost.

[hiagftd]

After watching Mr. Brownlee's video, I contacted Tesla and received the contact information of a local installer. Our house is much smaller than Mr. Brownlee's home, so I figured we might be able to afford it. The quote came back at about 25% more than what Mr. Brownlee paid! It was over a half of the value of our house. Needless to say, it immediately fell outside of our budget.

[charedj]

Overall costs for both roofs and systems are ridiculous, I'm kind of amazed at how much you both paid. Both of you have been taken for an absolute ride.

[ecoworrier]

I made the decision 11 years ago to go with a metal roof with standard sized frameless panels.
I saw these advantages:
1) fewer connections in each string
2) larger gap between roof and panel, giving better ventilation, cooling and therefore efficency
3) more choice in the market using standard sized panels and better efficiency.
4) fewer panels and therefore easier to replace/maintain. I bought 85 panels + 2 spares. One panel shattered on install - not a problem, had a spare on site so i now have 1 spare panel.
5) the metal roof below is more like factory roofing with a repeating trapeze ridge/trough profile. Cheap, lightweight, long lasting and you don't see it because its behind the PV array.

In terms of aesthetics i chose a south facing monopitched roof at 35 degrees. Basically a large rectangle covered by a 5 x 17 PV panel grid with no through entries (chimneys, windows, ventilation etc.) Looks great. The house is also box form below the roof - better for surface area to volume ratio and easier to acheive passive house rating than a complex H shape with a correspondingly complex roof shape.

The panels were 220 Watt. Modern panels of the same size are 440 now. I will replace them in 4 or 5 years - the replacement will be easy - we can use the existing aluminium subframe and external fixations - no new drilling into the roof will be required.

[aaronhall]

I can tell you why I didn't get a Tesla solar roof. They didn't deliver.

They quoted me and gave me an estimate of 13-18 weeks for install. 12 weeks in they cancelled my order and told me to resubmit through a local roofer they contracted with. The price went up 325% and the installation timeline was then estimated at 48-52 months.

So my system price went from $110k with install in 2021 to $365k with install in 2024-2025.

I got a standing seam metal roof for $35k installed within a month of contract signing. My solar system was $65, installed 12 weeks after signing, 2 weeks early. Installation was completed in 3 days, and PSE approved tying it into the network only 9 days later.

[rogerjohnston]

We have 12 year old panels. 4 have hail damage. Even though they are still working, we decided to replece the entire array. We use bet metering rather than batteries and are net $0. We are upgrading to new and fewer panels for the same kw this spring. The older panels paid for themselves ib 7 years we expect the new array to do so in 30 months. Love them. Can not imagine doing this upgrade with roof tiles.

[OnsWereldSuiderland]

In South Africa, our 2.9Kw 48v system, with 105A Lithium Battery and Inverter, cost us R56 000 in total, about $2, 500. Granted my brother in law and myself did all the work, excluding the installation of the electrical switch board, linking our system to the grid and checking/certification of our system by a certified electrician, required by our local municipality and for insurance purposes, but paying for that is included in the cost above.

Took us two years to fully pay for the system out of our savings

[joep]

EXCELLENT report Matt! 100% agree on all you said! I did not get because they are opaque about performance (besides no installers in my area).
To add, your comment about "very personal decision" is key. I tell anyone interested there is NO "one size fits all".

[JerryRigEverything]

Very interesting. I didn't know the prices were so similar.

[ricoma]

One thing that isn't considered is the Home Owner Association rules. Currently, our area has legislation drafted that will restrict HOA's from preventing Solar installations. We'll see if it passes.

[alunjones]

I'm in the UK with a similar sized house. If I put $150'000 in a high interest account, it would pay may annual electric bill entirely, with enough left over to compensate for inflation.

[einarmikkelsenPNW]

I installed a solar system on my roof myself and found that the efficiency goes down a bit when it is warm out. Thus, June produces more power than the hotter August, with the same amount of sunny days. My next system will be ground mounted to get around this, with cooling from crops growing below.

[navajojohn]

Years ago I used the Tesla roof calculator for my Florida 5200 sq' ft roof and came to $120k. At the time my electricity was 10.2 cents per kWh and today it is only 11.2 cents. Then adding 120k value to my home would increase my property tax for years to come plus insurance would raise my rates a bunch. So I just pay the 11.2 cents kWh. And if I got solar I would want run off batteries and use grid as a back up so even more costs all around.

[russael]

I replaced my roof with traditional asphalt shingles, and I went with SunPower panels with micro inverters along with the SunVault storage solution in 2021. Here in Michigan, we don't have net metering anymore - we are on something called Distributed Generation. Basically, the energy sent back to the grid is given as bill credit, and it is credited 100% for both peak and off peak, however, we have a separate distribution charge that solar credit does not pay for, which applies to any inflow from the grid.

For example, say I send 200kw to the grid but consume 200kw from the grid in the same month. The energy charge would be 0, but I would receive a bill of 200kw for distribution due to the consumption, plus their regular fixed charges. I didn't know that was a thing, but it makes me happier that I got the solar batteries. This means the batteries do pay for themselves with distribution charge savings. Instead of drawing energy from the grid at night, the batteries supply power to the house instead until they reach a depth of discharge set point (adjustable from 20 to 80%).

I started with a 7.6kw system with 26kw/h of storage, and then upgraded to 10kw with 52kw/h of storage in 2022. This allows my house to remain energy independent for about 8 months out of the year, and I use up bill credit during the winter months. It is also powerful enough to run the house during grid outages to the point where we can ignore an outage, unless it is in the middle of winter.

Due to fixed charges, it is IMPOSSIBLE to have no bill from the utility. Credits do not cover any additional services either, such as the surge protection program I signed up for (it's a meter socket surge suppressor that is installed by the utility... and then they charge a monthly fee.)

Overall, I'm quite happy with the system and its performance. It has had some quirks with the storage system, but Sunpower support has generally been helpful. No issues at all with the panels or micro inverters, or their Hub+ load center.

[lyracian]

I already went with standard solar panels. Only a 3 bedroomed house in old England with a 4 kWp system but I have not paid for any electricity in almost two years now.

[Kamodomon]

That point about being an early adopter Matt brought up was a VERY VERY GOOD point. Roof stuff isn't a phone or a game console, it's a very long term "investment" (it's not REALLY an investment, but you get what I'm going for here). It has to be reliable, it has to be easy to either replace or maintain, it has to last a long time.

[lindacgrace]

I live in Arizona - fabulous conditions for solar. My house will have a traditional clay tile roof, so solar on the roof is no bueno. I plan to put an array in the back yard on short stilts. The panels will shade my chicken coop, and have a water cachment set-up. Capturing water is just as important as capturing sunlight. A 10Kw array will capture a couple of thousand gallons of water during our monsoon season with the simple addition of a gutter with the downpipes directed to a cistern.

[brucethornton]

I think you are right Matt, Any system that doesn't use readily available parts is asking for trouble if your goal is to have an easily maintainable system. Cutting edge products are fun to play with, but I have all the headaches I need just trying to build maximum reliability.

[Ravespillo]

I put a Tesla solar system in last year, and because I went through Tesla's site for a quote, but worked with a local roofing contractor I was done in 5 weeks from initial contact, including PTO for a 20 kW system with 4 powerwalls and 3 inverters. The whole install process took about 10 days and the rest of the time I was waiting on PTO and a few final touches. I cannot stress enough what a difference it made to have a wonderful, quality local contractor that did a fantastic job. The whole thing has been running flawlessly since they completed it and I never had to deal with Tesla directly.