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Comment by jdjdjdhhd | Hacker News Reader

How many years before you pay off your roof and when will it need to be replaced?

It really depends on where you live. Aside from the obvious electrical cost savings, you typically have state/federal incentives plus the opportunity to sell back excess power to the grid. In addition, and most importantly, there may be SREC markets that pay you to generate EVEN if you consume everything you produce. In Washington DC for example, my $30k traditional panel system should be paid off in about 5 years due to (ordered by magnitude): SREC sales, federal tax credits, excess power generation sold to the grid, electrical savings. Currently in year 3 and about 2/3 paid off.

If you watch the video, 9.6 years to payoff and 25 years to replacement in this particular case.

And I imagine 25 years from now, the new solar roof be cheaper and more efficient.

Prying the old tiles off of the ruins of an post-apocalyptic wasteland can be very cost efficient.

It also makes sense to use freely available slave labour.

25 years is just what they guarantee, it probably lasts much longer.

My solar roof (not Tesla, of course) is meanwhile 21 years old, and works almost like on day 1. Since I dont expect a sudden failure in 4 years, my guess it that it will last another 10-20 years.

What leads you to believe a solar roof will last "much longer" than 25 years?

>Since I dont expect a sudden failure in 4 years, my guess it that it will last another 10-20 years.

Oh, you're just guessing.

For the record, I had 4x some small panels (165W) from a reputable company that shall remain nameless. They had a 10 year warranty.

Turns out that (a) the 10 year warranty actually meant "generating at least 90% of rated capacity in full sun after 10 years, but pro-rated across 10 years if not" and (b) they fell under this level after less than 5 years.

This is what I'm curious about. There seem to be really large differences between panels. Got two 150W panels for 78€ each this year. Peak output so far was around 240W, if performance stays like that for about five years I might break even in about 5 years for the full setup.

Bear in mind that most residential roofs (of any sort) only last 10-20 years anyhow.

This question can't really be answered without knowing the location. The differences can be significant.

I'm afraid that in my location by the time the roof pays off, the roof will be so badly polluted with pollen, moss, and residue from air pollution applied by the rain, that the fall in efficiency will render the entire system inoperable.

How hard is it to rise/wash it off?

Depends from the flora in the region. Once lived in a city district with trees producing sticky syrup (maple?) and yellow powder (birch?). This mixture was penetrating every aperture in e.g. a car. Went to car wash, the next day car was sticky again. Spruce and pine pollen result in a moss-like layer on the roof quite quickly.

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