"Imagine this design assignment: design something that makes oxygen, sequesters carbon, fixes nitrogen, distills water, accrues solar energy as fuel, makes complex sugars and food, creates microclimates, changes colors with the seasons, and self replicates.
Why don't we knock that down and write on it."
I have to remove them from the windows, but otherwise they are mostly maintenance free.
But my MBTF was only 10 years, the first set stopped working in the middle of the summer for no reason after almost completely covering the house, and I had to install a second one (this time with 2 spares, just in case). Luckily the first set delivered the new ones to me for free.
My roof faces East-West, my wall is to the South.
"0 sq feet available for solar panels Based on 3D modeling of your roof and nearby trees"
2000 hours of usable sunlight a year.
4664 sq ft available for panels.
Total 20 year savings: $1,000.
Seems... underwhelming.
Oh, this is for a lease.
$2,000 if you have to borrow to install the panels. Still... $100/yr?
The only worthwhile benefit is you can afford to pay $21,000 out of pocket.
1873 hours of usable sunlight 1561 sqft available for panels (ain't no Cave Creek mansion!) $9000 savings.
I left my electric bill at the default $100 estimate, which is close enough. They only defaulted to 3.5kw system for me, I assume based on my electric costs. 247 sqft. Maybe your costs were too low. There's no way an electric bill on a cave creek mansion is $100/mo. Their rates are lower, but the A/C will kill you. Once I moved the slider to $500/mo it estimates $89,000 savings, for example.
I like the concept, but it has that Beta(tm) feel to it...
Does that mean I get a perfect peak output during the middle of the day? No. But my generation comes on earlier and off later than friends with perfectly aligned systems - which without a powerwall (sadly don't have one yet) that is a benefit expanding the amount of time that I am generating usable power and saving A$0.25c/kWh instead of earning $0.06/kWh for exporting it at peak generation. (fair that in this context we're looking at potentially having a power wall too, but never the less - you lose round-trip efficiency on batteries - about 10% - it's likely to end up fully charged anyway depending on your daytime usage and thus extending your generation time might still be good).
I have 3.5kW of panels (3kW inverter, the max I can get on a single phase supply) and hit about 2.75kW peak generation . I wouldn't mind adding another panel or two per string (on my particular inverter and due to having two parallel strings, it works out fine for the voltages.. but this can vary a lot depending on your system specifications)
</end of not totally scientific ranting>
But also - seriously, the aesthetics. My suburb (Baldivis, Western Australia) has one of the top solar penetrations in the entire country at 57% of all houses (you can see here, it's 5th on the list: http://reneweconomy.com.au/australias-top-solar-states-and-s...) -- and while they're not exactly drop dead UGLY - it sure would be prettier with roofs like this everywhere. Particularly here we have a lot of smaller houses in orientations which mean often they end up being street facing instead of not. So yeah. Not sure how much of a greenhouse effect your roof is going to end up with though, that will be interesting. (here, we have predominantly tile or tin roofing - this shingle like stuff is much less common here than other parts of the world from what I've gathered)
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You forgot to say "carbon-based".
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/november/radiative-coolin...