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Solar Roofing Systems

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sanman

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I thought this looked interesting:



What are the opinions on which are the best solar roofing systems available on the market?
 
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Im actually planning to build a house at a beachfront property I own and looked into solar power. After speaking to an engineer I wouldnt bother for the following reasons:

- If you want to divest yourself from the grid, then you have to reserve a whole room in your house for battery storage, and these will degrade over time. It will get to the point where costs of buying new batteries will be more than just paying your electric bills. Let's not forget that these things are a major fire hazard.

- You only get good energy during clear days. Overcast or cloudy days could bring down your generation all the way to near zero.

Those two factors alone is proof enough that it aint practical.
 
PoS said:
Im actually planning to build a house at a beachfront property I own and looked into solar power. After speaking to an engineer I wouldnt bother for the following reasons:

- If you want to divest yourself from the grid, then you have to reserve a whole room in your house for battery storage, and these will degrade over time. It will get to the point where costs of buying new batteries will be more than just paying your electric bills. Let's not forget that these things are a major fire hazard.

- You only get good energy during clear days. Overcast or cloudy days could bring down your generation all the way to near zero.

Those two factors alone is proof enough that it aint practical.
Click to expand...
Install a nuke reactor, much more efficient. :p
 
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PoS said:
Im actually planning to build a house at a beachfront property I own and looked into solar power. After speaking to an engineer I wouldnt bother for the following reasons:

- If you want to divest yourself from the grid, then you have to reserve a whole room in your house for battery storage, and these will degrade over time. It will get to the point where costs of buying new batteries will be more than just paying your electric bills. Let's not forget that these things are a major fire hazard.

- You only get good energy during clear days. Overcast or cloudy days could bring down your generation all the way to near zero.

Those two factors alone is proof enough that it aint practical.
Click to expand...

That assumes the goal is to become grid free, which is not what most solar roof systems are designed to do.

Since there were no cost savings over the rack mounted system, it mainly comes down to appearance (emphasized in the video). Also mentioned was being able to walk on (more of) the roof - but for what?

Not mentioned was heat transfer through the home’s roof into the attic (or ceiling) space. That is significantly reduced with rack mounted systems (due to the air gap between the solar panels and the roof decking) and is apt to be (significantly?) increased by having a black shingled roof.

The solar panel efficiency degradation over time problem still exists with either system, but a rack mounted system over metal roofing (which lasts far longer than shingles) would seem to be the best for the ease (and lower cost) of replacing only the degraded (or otherwise damaged) solar panels.
 
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ttwtt78640 said:
That assumes the goal is to become grid free, which is not what most solar roof systems are designed to do.

Since there were no cost savings over the rack mounted system, it mainly comes down to appearance (emphasized in the video). Also mentioned was being able to walk on (more of) the roof - but for what?

Not mentioned was heat transfer through the home’s roof into the attic (or ceiling) space. That is significantly reduced with rack mounted systems (due to the air gap between the solar panels and the roof decking) and is apt to be (significantly?) increased by having a black shingled roof.

The solar panel efficiency degradation over time problem still exists with either system, but a rack mounted system over a metal roofing (which lasts far longer than shingles) would seem to be the best for the ease (and lower cost) of replacing only the degraded solar panels.
Click to expand...
We had solar in our last home in California. With a family of 4 and two teens always connected and me with the washer / dryer, dishwasher, pool etc we always were consuming more than we were producing. It wasn't a good financial decision for us in the end. Just our experience not to say it doesn't work great for others.
 
Spunkylama said:
We had solar in our last home in California. With a family of 4 and two teens always connected and me with the washer / dryer, dishwasher, pool etc we always were consuming more than we were producing. It wasn't a good financial decision for us in the end. Just our experience not to say it doesn't work great for others.
Click to expand...

The amount of power used does not change the amount of “free” power generated (added?) by the solar panel system. If the solar system generated excess power which could not be sold or stored then that would be a bad financial decision.
 
sanman said:
I thought this looked interesting:



What are the opinions on which are the best solar roofing systems available on the market?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advertisement link
 
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