Using green technology improving daily, and the increased use of solar energy to power houses, it now seems logical in retrospect that solar shingles were developed to take advantage of both the unlimited solar power supplied by the sun along with the surface of roofs, which generally provides no objective other than ornamentation.
Depending on each person’s aesthetic tastes, solar roof shingles provide a different look to houses. While obviously lacking a classic like wood or tile shingles, solar shingles still look great with the right wall colors and they do not really look that different. In addition, they are the best option for new and modern architecture styles.
Also, many companies produce special brown colored solar shingles that are more traditional looking than the normal blue ones. These are even allowed often in areas where the govt restricts this type of shingles that a house can have, for instance, in areas where houses are in a protection order list, or where a historical type of architecture has to be conserved.
Of course, solar shingles are not installed for their looks and artistic value, but mainly for taking advantage of solar power. They’re definitely a lot better option than solar panels, as they practically occupy no space. Solar panels have to be mounted somewhere, and even when installed on the roof, they are still troublesome. Solar shingles do not have this problem, because they use the space that are generally used by normal shingles, in addition, many shingles could be upgraded to solar shingles.
The main pitfall with solar shingles is price. At this point the technology isn’t innovative enough to make it less costly than normal shingles. In addition, installation of solar shingles is more tough than typical shingles, as it involves plenty of wiring. Also, extra hardware is required to channel electricity produced by a lot of these solar shingles into your house systems, such as batteries, inverter, etc. All of this can increase your costs greatly.
However, keep in mind you’ll be saving in electricity over time, so it is really a good investment. In addition, you’ll have a back up battery for your whole house, which will give you several hours of energy in case there is a general power failure in your neighborhood. Moreover, after the expense of the installation, there’re no operation costs you need in order to get the additional energy.
Finally, solar shingles also have the advantage of that they contribute to lowering the contamination of the environment, as they reduce the use of electricity generated by carbon or gas burning and change it with solar power.