If you have finally decided to become eco-friendly or want some eco-friendly ideas for your next home renovation or just want to bring down your high electricity bill, you’ve come to the right place.

Yes, it’s 2017 and solar panels are used almost everywhere for this purpose. But that doesn’t mean that it is the only way to harness solar energy. You don’t have to place large panels randomly over your roof to do that. That is not an aesthetic way to harness the power of the Sun, right?

Here’s the Tesla Solar Roof.

Tesla Solar Roof

The Solar Roof was announced in October, 2016. Basically, it is a set of solar shingles – specially designed solar panels which function as roof tiles too. The tiles will be available in four variants: Textured Glass Tile, Smooth Glass Tile, Tuscan Glass Tile, and Slate Glass Tile.

According to Elon Musk, CEO, Tesla, the Solar Roof “looks better and lasts longer” than a normal roof. He also claims that the Solar Roof tiles are “three times stronger than normal tiles”. In fact, they took some durability tests too and they got the best ratings for hail, wind and fire protection tests which make them more durable than typical roof mounted solar panels.

Textured Glass Tile, Smooth Glass Tile, Tuscan Glass Tile, and Slate Glass Tile

Tesla also allows you to choose the areas of your roof which need to be energy-generating. In simple words, they offer two kinds of tiles: solar and non-solar. They both look the same but one generates energy and the other doesn’t. This allows you to decide how much energy your roof should make.

The Solar Roof best works along with the Tesla Powerwall – a big rechargeable li-ion home battery to store energy – in this case, energy made by your roof. The Powerwall lets you decide when to use solar power – for example, during power outages or for everyday use.

The Tesla Powerwall 2 along with the Solar Roof | Source: Electrek

Though it costs $21.85 per square foot of Solar Roof, Tesla comforts its customers by telling them that the reduction in their electricity bill might be more than the cost of Solar Roof.

According to energysage, typical solar panels produce 13,000 kWh of energy per year while the Tesla Solar Roof produces only 10,000 kWh. From their research, we see that it costs around $25,000 more for replacing your existing roof with Solar Roof than installing solar panels. But if you need a new roof –or for that matter, a new house, it costs around $5,000 more for the Solar Roof than making a roof adding the solar panels.

The Solar Roof is available for pre-order today but the installations will begin in the U.S. this summer. Tesla expects the installations outside the U.S. to begin in 2018.

Not in a mood to replace your entire roof with fancy tiles or you live in an apartment? Then you’d love SolarGaps. Here’s their motto – “The obvious solution for those who can’t (renters) or don’t want to install rooftop solar panels to reduce their monthly power bill.”

Meet SolarGaps – the world’s first smart solar blinds.

SolarGaps

SolarGaps claims that you can cut down your electricity bill by up to 70 percent with their smart blinds. These blinds can generate up to 100W of energy per 10 sq. ft. of a window, which is more than enough to power three MacBooks.

Just like the Solar Roof by Tesla, these blinds can store energy in a home battery, like the Powerwall. What makes these blinds smart is the fact that they automatically track the sun, just like a Sunflower and you can also control it using a smartphone app.

The only thing that should concern you before considering the SolarGaps is whether you get enough sunlight or not. You don’t have to think about it while considering the Solar Roof. A roof gets enough sunlight. But if you have obstructions like trees, houses or even buildings between your windows and the Sun, it might not be a good plan.

SolarGaps

The pricing for SolarGaps starts at $390 for XS and goes all the way up to $1,910 for XXL size. If interested, you can support them on Indiegogo and they may send you the chosen product by the end of this year.

Why not get the best of both worlds? There’s no harm in using the SolarGaps along with the Solar Roof. You may only need another Powerwall to store more energy.

Though this combo sounds too expensive, you also might cut down your electricity bill by 99 percent. Probably, it might be your ticket to go off-grid and still have a decent looking house without solar panels all over it.

Anand Baburajan
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