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An Inside Look At The Components That Go Into A Tesla Solar Roof Installation

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Published on August 8th, 2019 |

by Kyle Field

An Inside Look At The Components That Go Into A Tesla Solar Roof Installation

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August 8th, 2019 by Kyle Field

July ushered in the start of the real action for our Tesla solar roof, as the installation kicked into high gear. The first materials arrived at the house and the team prepared to install the solar roof on our new home. Before we get into the installation, let’s talk about the components that make up of one of Tesla’s solar roofs.

Image credit: Tesla

Many of the components and processes used in installing a Tesla solar roof are from the traditional roofing industry, which makes sense. The solar roof still fundamentally has to perform all of the same functions of a normal dumb roof before its ability to generate power matters. It also includes many of the same components as a traditional bolt-on solar system, with rooftop wiring, inverters, safety devices, and the like.

Underlayment
A Tesla solar roof installation starts with the installation of a waterproof underlayment. Tesla uses Firestone’s CLAD-GARD SA-FR, a standard roofing underlayment for metal roofs. This product provides a waterproof foundation for any roof while also providing a skid-resistant surface for the installers to walk on while installing the more complex parts of the roof. This is the white material in the photo above.

Metal Framing
After the underlayment goes down, Tesla’s crew frames up the roof with metal. A metal trim wraps around the entire roof edge as well as along every peak and valley in the roof structure. In the valleys of the roof, the metalwork provides the drainage for any precipitation and debris. Up at the peaks of the roof, it provides protection, funneling any precipitation onto the tiles or surfaces below, which ultimately escort it off the roof.

Tesla solar roof with copious amounts of metal work framing the roof. Image credit: Kyle Field | CleanTechnica

Tesla makes all of its own metal products for the solar roof, so all of these components are specific to the Tesla solar roof. Word on the street is that these are all currently made in the Bay Area, but that likely won’t be the case as Tesla ramps up production after locking in the design of version 3 of its solar roof tiles.

Roof Tiles
The star of the show in the solar roof install is obviously Tesla’s solar roof tiles. These come in two flavors: 1) tiles with solar cells sandwiched between two pieces of tempered glass that produce power, and 2) glass tiles. Roof tiles with solar cells in them are called PV Tiles and are the fundamental building block of any Tesla solar roof. They arrive on site in pre-wired, pre-mounted bundles of 3 tiles in a row, called PV Modules.

A pallet of Tesla PV Module roof tiles. Image credit: Kyle Field | CleanTechnica

Each PV Tile has a production capacity of just over 8 watts each, translating to 25 watts for a full 3-tile PV Module. Assembling the tiles together into PV Modules at the factory has multiple benefits, with the first and foremost being a reduction in the amount of effort and time that’s required to install a solar roof. This helps Tesla deliver a faster turnaround time, means less time for a customer’s home sitting there without a roof, and keeps labor costs down.

Using PV Modules also reduces the number of on-site wiring connections that need to be made, allowing Tesla to control the quality of more potential points of failure in the roof system at the factory. PV Modules come with the joints between the three tiles pre-sealed, resulting in what is surely a higher quality, more consistent seal that what can be guaranteed with a field installation. Each PV Tile comes with its own set of built-in c-clip mounts and stand-offs that hold the top of the tile off of the roof, transferring any weight from above to the roof surface below while also serving to set the correct angle to allow water to run down the roof.

Tesla calls the non-producing tiles Roofing Tiles, which are simply made from a single sheet of tempered glass. These come from the factory as single tiles as well as bundled into Roofing Modules comprised of 3 glass tiles. Tesla uses these on sections of the roof that are not wide enough for a block of solar tiles and for use along the seams of the roof. To ensure a clean fit at the seams, Tesla’s team simply cuts the tiles to match the angle of the seam they will butt up against.

A cut Roofing Module with mounting bricks in the background. Image credit: Kyle Field | CleanTechnica

Mounting Bricks
Tesla has packed an impressive amount of functionality into each single PV Module, and the mounting bricks are the other half of the system that makes it easy for Tesla’s installer to secure the PV and Roofing Modules to the roof. Tesla’s mounting bricks come in standard and drained configurations.

Tesla solar roof installation. Image credit: Chuck Field

Standard mounting blocks allow the tile below it to mount to it, but also allow the panel above it to clip to it, thanks to a healthy dose of industrial grade plastic hook and loop. The trailing edge of the panel above the mounting brick has another strip of this fabric, resulting in a very secure bond. Check it out in the video below:

Drained mounting bricks include a channel that helps water drain in the proper direction between each of the PV Modules or where they butt up against a Roofing Tile or Roofing Module. They still allow adjoining modules to mount to them with their c-clips, but with the added benefit of funneling water down the roof.

A Tesla solar roof tile clipped onto a drained mounting block. Image credit: Kyle Field | CleanTechnica

The Electrical System
Each PV Module is connected to the solar roof wiring string via standard solar MC connectors that come pre-installed from the factory. These strings then connect down through the roof via a series of electrical pucks mounted and sealed to the roof. Tesla is required to install a Rapid Shutdown Device (RSD) within 5 feet of every solar array, so they are typically installed up in the rafters near the roof.

The wiring in an array of Tesla solar roof tiles. Image credit: Tesla

On the inside of the house, the pucks sprout bare wires that connect to one of a handful of these Delta Rapid Shutdown Devices, shown as a small grey box to the right of the rooftop wiring in the image above. Outputs from the RSDs are fed down to a pair of Delta inverters that convert the DC power from the roof down into the AC power that all the electrical goodies in the home want.

From there, the wiring configuration varies depending on whether Powerwalls are being installed or not. We are installing two Powerwalls, so we’ll talk through the essential loads wiring configuration. For our house, we do not have anything running on gas, so all our appliances, cooking, and heating are electric. Add to that two electric car chargers and a spare for guests and our loads were just too large to cram into a single 200 amp electrical sub-panel.

After all the load calculations were done, we opted to pull a few of the larger, less critical loads off of the Powerwall battery backup and just backup the “essential” loads in our house. The image below shows a single, undersized inverter and diminutive supporting boxes. Every single one of these boxes/devices in our system is twice as large as shown here, with the exception of the Tesla Powerwall (though, technically, we do have two of those).

Image credit: Tesla

The two Powerwalls provide backup power to everything on our 200 amp sub-panel, while the remaining loads in our home — our electric oven and two of our car chargers — will be relegated to the 400 amp main panel.

The Tesla Backup Gateway provides communication to the Tesla Mothership and can automagically disconnect the home from the grid in the event of a power outage. Doing so engages the Powerwalls to provide power to all of the essential loads in the sub-panel, while being replenished by the rooftop solar system when the sun is out.

That’s an overview of the components in a Tesla solar roof system. We’ll dive into the system more in future articles, so stay tuned for a first look at this hot new clean tech.

Related Exclusive: Why Tesla’s Solar Roof Is A Bargain, 53% Of The Price Of A Roof + Electricity — CleanTechnica Analysis

About the Author

Kyle Field I'm a tech geek passionately in search of actionable ways to reduce the negative impact my life has on the planet, save money and reduce stress. Live intentionally, make conscious decisions, love more, act responsibly, play. The more you know, the less you need. TSLA investor.

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A Summer-Long Adventure In My Tesla Model 3

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Published on August 9th, 2019 |

by Guest Contributor

A Summer-Long Adventure In My Tesla Model 3

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August 9th, 2019 by Guest Contributor

Originally published on EVANNEX.
By Jonathan David Harris, aka @aPowerTrip

It was late April 2019 when a friend and I arrived at the Glendale Galleria in California to see the new Captain Marvel movie. While my friend took a business call I wandered into the Tesla showroom next door. It was then, for the first time, I encountered a Model 3 up close. I sat in the car and was amazed at the simplicity of Tesla’s interior design. It was impressive to see a single touchscreen control nearly all of the car’s features — even the direction of airflow.

At the St. Louis Arch (Source: @aPowerTrip)

After a quick overview of the car, the Tesla specialist showed me a map of all the Supercharger stations located throughout the US. He told me, “You can now travel freely around the county with the amount of charging stations available.”

In New Hampshire (Source: @aPowerTrip)

I gazed at the red dots across the Supercharger map and announced, “I know what I’m doing this summer.” It turns out I have a background in video production and technology, so an opportunity to put this Tesla Model 3 to the test while taking video and photos all across the country would turn out to be a perfect match. It was decided — I wanted to take a summer-long road trip with my dog without using any gasoline.

Mt. Washington (Source: @aPowerTrip)

I don’t think the specialist believed me any more than my friends or family. When I told everyone I was thinking of taking a summer-long road trip with a Tesla all around the country from Memorial Day to Labor Day, they were in disbelief. If I’m being honest, I don’t think I believed it would happen either. Memorial Day was a month away and I wasn’t even sure I could afford the car. Or the trip.

Over the next week, I figured out a plan. If I could sell my car, old production gear, and other items in my house, rent out my home for the summer, and camp in National Parks around the country (rather than spend money in hotels) — I figured … it just might be possible.

Redwood National Park (Source: @aPowerTrip)

So I sold off the gear and my car, gathered some camping essentials that would fit in the Model 3 trunk and frunk, and managed to find someone to sublet my home. Everything fell into place very quickly. Even the car I wanted — a RWD Tesla Model 3, Midnight Silver, with long-range battery became available for pickup the day after I ordered it.

There were, however, a few speed bumps in those initial prep weeks. The first sublet tenant bailed last minute and I was worried I wouldn’t find a replacement just a few days before my departure. I also found some lumps on my dog Indy, which gave me a scare about her health. Indy is a twelve-year-old terrier I adopted when she was only eight weeks old. She’s named after Indiana Jones, the lead character in my favorite movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Camping at Devil Tower (Source: @aPowerTrip)

Indy turned out to be okay and the vet gave us the green light. Financing this last-minute adventure was a bit of a rocky adventure, with a very rough idea of where we were going.

Brooklyn Bridge (Source: @aPowerTrip)

The plan was to visit National Parks, cross off some bucket list items, visit friends and family, and basically allow the trip to determine our path. In just two months, we’ve put over 12,000 miles on the Model 3 and it wasn’t until August 1st that I finally had to pay to charge the car.

I was fortunate enough to have two people use my Tesla referral code (Jonathan96658), which gave me 6,000 free miles of Supercharging along the way. The other 6,000 miles of charging came from Tesla’s free destination chargers, friends and family allowing us to plug in, and other free public charging spots. I even had a few Quality Inn hotels provide access to their outlets so we could get some extra range in parts of the country that didn’t have ample Superchargers.

Cheers Pub in Boston (Source: @aPowerTrip)

It’s been an incredible journey, with many challenges and bumps in the road, but very few have to do with the Tesla Model 3. There was snow, hail, and storms (especially in the Midwest), road closures, Indy temporarily became ill, my car was towed in NYC, and (yes) a few moments of “will I have enough range to get to the next charger?” But that was typically my fault. I was trying to push the limits of the car.

After a hail storm in Yosemite (Source: @aPowerTrip)

There were a few other hiccups along the way. Although the Tesla specialist told me every Supercharger is conveniently located near a place to use a restroom — that isn’t 100% true. Most Superchargers are close to a restaurant (or located near stores) but if you’re traveling around the country and need to charge early in the morning or late at night, there can be a surprising lack of options for trash removal, cleaning the windshield, or access to restrooms, as everything is usually closed during these off-hours.

Supercharger station late at night (Source: @aPowerTrip)

But these minor issues haven’t taken away from the Model 3’s stellar performance. I do not see myself ever going back to a gas-operated vehicle. Also, thank you Tesla for Autopilot — it’s especially helpful when you’re driving over 10 hours in a day. I can’t wait for Tesla’s updates to Summon, Autopilot, and other refinements that should arrive in the next software update. And, of course, a huge shout out to “Dog Mode,” which keeps Indy safe and cool while I run errands.

In Seattle (Source: @aPowerTrip)

In any event, be sure to look out for lots of videos I’ll be publishing on my YouTube channel when I return from my summer-long road trip. If you already have a Tesla, congrats, but if you’re buying or leasing, please use my referral code — Jonathan96658 — which provides me with free charging and will help get me home in September. In the meantime, feel free to follow my ongoing Tesla Model 3 adventures with Indy via @aPowerTrip on Instagram.

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About the Author

Guest Contributor is many, many people. We publish a number of guest posts from experts in a large variety of fields. This is our contributor account for those special people. 😀

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Lower deliveries for Volkswagen brand in July

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