Reason: My husband works in the energy sector. Therefore, he was very interested in having a roof that provided cleaner energy and alleviated our electrical bill. I was hesitant about a solar system due to the look of the conventional solar panels. I had learned, too, that solar panels can decrease the life of the roof as the panels sit on top of the roof. Tesla on the other hand not only provided the solar panels but promoted the idea of a cohesive look throughout without any panels sitting on top. Moreover, Tesla provides a 25-year warranty on the roof.
Process: To get a quote we filed an application online in 2020. After providing our house’s architectural drawings Tesla indicated that the steep roof design would present installation challenges. Also at the time, Tesla was mainly focused on areas in CA and not in the Northeast (We are in CT).
We proceeded with the construction of our house and installed a asphalt roof. However, about eighteen months after we finished building our house Tesla contacted us to see if we were still interested in a Tesla roof. A representative then reached us and asked to visit our house to study the roof in person. After a couple of engineer visits, in a span of a few months, we went again into this “don’t hear back” from Tesla phase. Once again, we assumed their answer was still the same no as before.
It was not until the spring of 2023 that Tesla came back to us and said that they could make it work. At that point Tesla asked us to sign a number of documents, including the Tesla roof design system, the document giving Tesla the ability to monitor our system, and to connect our system to Eversource. We also provided the option to sell power to Eversource (our electricity company).
And so, we were scheduled to have our Tesla roof installed in August 2023.
Installation: The crew began installation by removing the asphalt roof. I must confess, it did not feel great to remove a brand-new roof. The roof removal took about two weeks, including the gutters. The Tesla crew then proceeded to install the water protection all around the roof. Once the roof was fully waterproof, they began installing the metal strip around the fascia and preparing to install the “fake” tiles. “Fake” tiles are the tiles that look very similar to the solar tiles but do not produce any energy. They are there to simply provide the cohesive look. Meanwhile the electrician was making the appropriate wire installations to have two batteries installed in the basement, which would collect the solar panel energy generated. The electrician also had to install a meter outside that would allow the electrical company (Eversource) to monitor how much energy our system would “sell” to them/the grid.
The installation of the entire roof took about six (6) weeks. The original schedule was four (4) weeks. The delay was mainly weather related. If it drizzled or rained, the crew would not be able to work. Moreover, our roof design was in fact a more challenging installation that took longer to finish.
However, on September 22nd 80% of our energy use came from the newly installed Tesla solar system. Granted, September in CT is generally a very pleasant weather period – not hot, not cold – low to mid 60s and pushing high 50’s in temperatures. In the ten days that we had our system running in September the system generated 188 kw hours. During the same period, our usage was 321.6 kw hours. Therefore, during this short period that we have had our system the solar system has generated about 2/3 of our usage. Linked to that is a lower electrical bill.