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Re: puravida19 post# 9850

Thursday, 05/11/2017 3:07:44 PM

Thursday, May 11, 2017 3:07:44 PM

Post# of 10460
Doesn't say...they're made by Solar City, so they are likely somewhere on the high end for efficiencies, but can't say for sure. On a per sq foot basis, I presume there would be less output than conventional because the cell in each tile only covers 60 or 70% of the tile. On the whole, this looks to be an attractive format, but in looking closer, it appears to be pretty expensive & I could foresee there being some unusual problems during installation & down the line.
I think he chose to feature some poor examples for optimal conditions. All those houses are shrouded in shade from large trees, obviously affecting overall performance. Which makes me wonder if they have matching dummy tiles available for areas where solar makes no sense. Aside from that, I suspect the installation process requires special time-consuming procedures. The glass tiles likely aren't recommended to walk on & could be slippery, which could make installing each row hard for the roofers. Additionally, each tile would likely require (a test-as-you-go procedure for) plugging-in to a wire laid down concealed in each row, further slowing the process & having possible long-term servicing problems if the connections fail or corrode...excessive line-drop might also be a consideration for output. I can think of a few other (product-specific) idiosyncrasies to compensate for as well.
Curiously, the warrantees spelled-out on their webpage state 'lifetime of the house', but in reading further, only a standard 30yrs for the cells , & likely less for the hard-sell power storage systems they offer. So, on the surface, this looks good, but the devil is in the details...from my pov.

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