I’d like to believe that we are in a transitional period with solar panels, and soon it will be more common for them to just be an integral part of the roof. However I don’t see much uptake for the companies that have tried offering such products. Has anyone seen a house with integrated panels?
I think Elon’s SolarCity company did something like that but it failed because of inefficiency of the panels and just expensive to install. To be fair I think having this is better than no solar panels at all. I think this will remain common until those two I mentioned with SolarCity gets resolved.
That sounds way more expensive and like it has way more points of failure if you live somewhere that occasionally gets hail, tornadoes, or hurricanes. I can only speak for those locations as that’s primarily where I’ve lived, but I would much prefer my roof to be a roof then to chance anything coming in.
Well yeah I agree that when you try to meld two things into one you generally get something more expensive than both which doesn’t perform as well as either. For something as common and well established as roofing materials, it’s going to be very very hard to beat conventional roofs on price and performance while adding electricity generation. Though to be fair, conventional solar panels probably get ripped apart in a hurricane, too.
My worry is less them getting ripped apart during a storm and more the potential hole they could leave behind due to their destruction. Any hole in a continuous surface is a weak point.
I’d like to believe that we are in a transitional period with solar panels, and soon it will be more common for them to just be an integral part of the roof. However I don’t see much uptake for the companies that have tried offering such products. Has anyone seen a house with integrated panels?
Not gonna happen, house are insanely cheaply built these days.
I think Elon’s SolarCity company did something like that but it failed because of inefficiency of the panels and just expensive to install. To be fair I think having this is better than no solar panels at all. I think this will remain common until those two I mentioned with SolarCity gets resolved.
I agree. I have panels. They’re ugly as shit. But they help.
That sounds way more expensive and like it has way more points of failure if you live somewhere that occasionally gets hail, tornadoes, or hurricanes. I can only speak for those locations as that’s primarily where I’ve lived, but I would much prefer my roof to be a roof then to chance anything coming in.
Well yeah I agree that when you try to meld two things into one you generally get something more expensive than both which doesn’t perform as well as either. For something as common and well established as roofing materials, it’s going to be very very hard to beat conventional roofs on price and performance while adding electricity generation. Though to be fair, conventional solar panels probably get ripped apart in a hurricane, too.
My worry is less them getting ripped apart during a storm and more the potential hole they could leave behind due to their destruction. Any hole in a continuous surface is a weak point.