Will the cold blast in Texas and other parts of the south help push solar energy for houses?

Better to institute a carbon tax and let people sort it out for themselves. Texans should probably have solar panels everywhere, anyway, considering their massive needs for cooling. If they don’t it’s probably because other energy sources are improperly cheaper.

Everyone with the means or desire to in the southern U.S. should consider solar, considering the strong sun.

But Solar doesn’t work too well in a winter storm. It still seems best for supplemental and back-up, since solar radiation is not consistent,

I hope access to Solar will be much simpler, much less red tape, in the near future. Maybe someday the gas and oil energy will be for back-up and supplemental energy

Personally I think that the production and sale of fissile material should be completely deregulated, to enable the creation of a potentially very lucrative personal nuclear reactor market.
I believe that there are nuclear reactor designs, that can use the spent nuclear fuel of conventional reactors. This could help alleviate the issue of nuclear waste.
Another advantage is, that you can sell any surplus electricity to your neighbours, recouping some of the cost, plus, you can also easily power any bunker or fallout or tornado shelter you have built in your basement.
Sometimes my genius is almost frightening.

No. Too expensive. They probably use natural gas to heat their homes.
And they know this weather thing they’re going through now is just a short-lived thing and next year everything will be as usual.

Definitely. I’m not sure if Tesla is installing their solar roofs in Texas yet, but it’s much cheaper than installing a premium roof, gives you energy independence, melts the snow off of itself, is incredibly durable, and can have individual tiles repaired in the rare event it gets damaged.

@gorillapaws I looked into the Tesla roof when they first put out PR on it, and the expected price was much higher than a roof and panels from what I could tell. It was very disappointing. Has that changed?

@JLeslie Depends on the type of roof. If you’re getting slate, tile or other more premium roofs, it’s competitive. If you’re getting a premium roof + solar, it’s significantly cheaper—especially when you factor in tax credits and the monthly electricity savings.

Not that anybody cares, but I just had solar installed. It’s kind of fun seeing how many trees I have saved. :-)

@Caravanfan I care! Did you get batteries, or you sell back to the utility company?

@gorillapaws The tax credits might help now. When I looked at it I was making very little money. Tax savings help people who make enough money to save on taxes. That’s another problem with that set up, the people who could benefit most from free utilities can’t even benefit from the tax incentives in the same way. Let’s say they will save $500 a year on taxes, but then the cost of the solar panels are very expensive and utilities are only about $800 a year. The math gets less clear. Then you have longer wait to collect the credit compared to someone who will save $4,000 right off the bat in one tax year.

You get the tax credit whether it is panels on top of a roof or a solar roof.

I’m going to look into it again.

@JLeslie I decided not to get a battery.

@gorillapaws I just did an estimator on the Tesla website and I guess it is a similar in price. It says $33,558 for my house. I actually am reroofing my house, because there was a problem on my entire block with the tar that was used. My bids were $13,500 to $16,000. I don’t know how much solar panels would actually cost me. I feel like it should be cheaper to do the Tesla though, not the same or more. It is one process and I would think less materials.

@JLeslie This video does a pretty good job covering the economics of Tesla’s Solar Roof. If you’re doing low-end asphalt shingles, Tesla’s roof is going to be more expensive. It really depends so much on a ton of variables: size of roof, orientation of the roof (southern-facing is ideal), price of electricity in your area, your latitude (closer to the equator is better), tax incentives (25% credit I believe), etc.

Thanks for the video! It basically said what happened to me when I first tried to investigate it. Waiting waiting waiting, then finding out it was very expensive. The big price change makes me feel like they were just hoping people would pay a fortune for it, which I find annoying. I can’t help but wonder if there is more room in the price and they can still profit. My current house I wouldn’t do it. I wonder if you build a house if the builder is the one who gets the tax credit? I would also love to know how it stands up during real world hurricane or tornado. The video says it is up to 130 wind speed, which is pretty good. What if some of those tile crack or break free, then the electricity won’t work? Or, will it just be reduced in efficiency and need to use the grid? Is it like Christmas lights, one bad light and the rest of the string doesn’t work?

FWIW my installer used Sunpower panels. I’m going for 90% usage. We decided not to use a battery because we ran the numbers and it wasn’t economically helpful, and we don’t get blackouts because we are on the same grid of the hospital.

@JLeslie I think in the very early days, they were so expensive because they were more complicated and the costs of installation were really high as a result. They’ve been trying to simplify the design and make the install process much easier for the past several years. As for the credit, that goes to the homeowner. I know you can replace individual tiles, not sure how a damaged panel affects overall output. I suspect one tile out may disable a few neighbors until replaced, but the rest would still work—that’s just a guess though.

@Caravanfan How did the economics work out for you? I know CA has high energy prices. Will you come out ahead in the end?

@Caravanfan I wondered about putting in fewer panels than they recommend. You say 90% usage. I will be curious to see how it works out for you over the next few months. I am assuming your heat is electric also.

Does your electric company buy your extra electricity? Supposedly, where I live the buy back is very fair.

@gorillapaws I just wonder if the builder specs out the house and the homeowner buys it completed with solar panels or the tesla roof already installed who gets the tax credit? The roof contract is with the builder not the homeowner.

@gorillapaws For us, it worked out that I will break even in about 7–8 years.

@JLeslie It’s a bit complicated, and ultimately about how the economics of your electric company work. In the old days it was all about reducing your tiers, so you didn’t need 100% coverage. Now, the economics have changed so up to 100% coverage is good. You don’t want to go over becuase you’re selling the power back at wholesale prices. The way our system works is that we gain credits, which is kept by the company, and then we spend the credits if we go over our solar usage. At the end of the year they have a “true up” where they settle up the difference with us. We pay them a monthly fee regardless.

Every area is going to be different though so make sure you get 3 bids from 3 different installers. We ended up not going with the Tesla battery because it would really only be used for about 3 months of the year during the hot months, and it wasn’t really economically needed. However, I have a friend who is in a blackout zone—they get blacked out in fire season all the time. They got a battery.