- We are not going with Tesla solar
and we're not getting Tesla
Powerwalls at our house.
(techno music)
oh, I broke one.
(laugh)
- [Woman] Okay.
(laughs)
- Oh man, I just broke my roof.
This is the roof of the
home that we are building
and these are the tiles.
We've had three videos updating you guys
and showing you the house build process.
This has been such a fun thing to do
and kind of wild to design
everything from the ground up.
There's been two common questions
that we're gonna answer in today's video;
are you going to be using Tesla roof tiles
and Tesla Powerwalls?
And then second, we'll get
to the second one later.
I'm not gonna tell you yet.
What is this called?
These are just black concrete tiles
that we're putting all over the roof.
That's what we're doing on our roof.
We're not going with Tesla solar
and we're not getting Tesla
Powerwalls at our house.
This wasn't a decision that I made.
I'm so scared to walk on
this, I don't wanna break 'em.
Let me get to a better spot.
We tried.
We reached out to Tesla,
we went on the website,
we put in a deposit months and months ago
for the Powerwalls.
In fact, we've even
earned a free Powerwall
because of the referrals
that you guys have given us
from ordering Teslas using our code.
Thank you a lot for that.
Tesla solar and Tesla Powerwalls
are really not that available
in most parts of the country.
About a month ago I got
an email from the guy
that runs all of Tesla
Powerwalls and solar.
He is in Las Vegas, Nevada.
That covers our area
which is in southern Utah.
And he said, "Congrats, you've
earned a free Powerwall,
"unfortunately, there are no
Tesla certified installers
"in your area so we'll give you
$55 hundred off of a Tesla."
I'm like that's fantastic.
And a lot of people would
be like yes, that is great.
$55 hundred off of a car
that you can basically
never get discounts off of.
The problem is, I already
have three Teslas,
do I need another one?
This credit expires in 12 months.
If we get Tesla certified
installers in your area
then you can get the Tesla
Powerwall or you need to buy
a Tesla within the next 12
months using the 55 hundred
or your 55 hundred just disappears.
I said, "Great we are
building a house right now,
"we want that Powerwall.
"How about I pay extra to
get a certified installer
"from Las Vegas or even
from Salt Lake City, Utah
"to come down, I'll pay them,
to install the Powerwalls.
"I need to buy one or two
more on top of the free one."
You can't even bring a certified
installer to this area so,
I think it's quite interesting
considering that in Q1 2019,
Tesla solar sales were down,
I think it was around 10%
compared to the quarter of the last year.
And the sales have been
declining, each quarter.
Powerwall sales are up a little bit
but the more that I've
been looking into this,
the more that I found that
there are people all over
the United States that have
put in their pre-orders
for their Powerwalls and want Tesla solar
and these roof tiles and
they just can't get it.
It's kind of a frustrating
thing and it's like,
"Hey Tesla, take my money."
and Tesla is like, "Hey, we
don't have enough capacity
"on our batteries at Gigafactory 1,
"we don't want your money."
But at the same time, they
were like three weeks away
from goin bankrupt last year.
So it's kind of a strange thing and I hope
that they can figure out their
supply so that they can make
more batteries so that people
can get their Powerwalls.
Let's get off the hot roof.
It's super hot and I'm
wearing a long-sleeve shirt.
And I wanna show you some of the things
that we're doing inside of
the house that are helping us
be a little more energy efficient.
So that hopefully we'll
compensate for some of the things
that we're losing by not having solar
and having the sun run it.
And if you think I'm just like
not a fan of the Powerwalls,
that's not the case.
In fact, Lincoln and I met Bill Gates
three or four years ago in New York.
And Lincoln was allowed
to ask him one question
and I think this was the
month after Tesla came out
announced their Powerwalls
and Lincoln said,
- You talked about a lot
with energy in your letter,
so what do you think of
the Tesla Home Battery?
- It's still not cheap
enough, that it's not
as inexpensive as getting
the power from your utility.
If they can make those batteries
about five times cheaper,
then it really lets you
use your own solar panels.
But not yet.
Batteries are tough to improve.
I'm invested a lot in battery companies,
and they're all sort
of having a tough time
getting the cost down.
The key thing is reusing the
battery about 10 times more
than works right now and testing
whether they've been able
to make it last, instead
of 300 cycles, 3000 cycles.
That's turned out to be very hard to do.
- Bill Gates kind of was
caught off-guard cause Lincoln
was just this little cute kid
with blonde hair in the green room
before he went out to see
like some talk show thing.
And he kinda stuttered with his question
(Bill Gates stutters)
and then he kinda said,
"You know the technology
"is not quite there,
"the batteries don't have enough storage."
I think Bill is a really smart guy.
I think Bill maybe is a little
bit wrong as far as like
the storage and the
ability not being there.
It appears when I read
through the Tesla financials,
that it really is just the constraints
of not having enough
production of batteries.
And this is something that,
whether you're talking
to Mercedes or BMW or
Honda or GM or Tesla,
really the battery cells are the thing
that's really holding back
all these car manufacturers
from putting out cars.
And so I'm sure Tesla was like,
okay Model Y, Model 3 production
or Powerwalls that we give
to people that are putting
solar on their house.
And the car is probably
a lot more profitable
and says more about the
brand than the Powerwalls.
Tesla, if you can make it
available, that would be great.
I just wanna be able to store
that energy during the day
so that when I park our
electric cars during the night,
it can charge those cars
even when the sun is down.
(techno music)
That's how big the window is.
This is the scale right there.
Thank you (mumbles)
- We wanted to choose
windows that were extremely
energy efficient so we ended up going
with the wood clad window.
We'll have a wood framed case
window and on the outside,
it's a solid extruded aluminum.
So it's very energy efficient,
very strong, very durable.
- We spent a little bit more money, right?
It cost more money to get windows
that are more energy efficient
and whether your windows
are big or small, especially
when they are big though,
it does make a difference on how much heat
and coolers coming into your house.
If you look up at the roof,
see how shiny that is right there?
- it's called TechShield,
it acts as a radiant barrier
which allow the attic space to be
about 25 to 30 degrees cooler.
The Markhams spent about $3000
more to do the entire house
but that being said, they have
big hall ceilings, big pitches.
- So those are the first
two things that we've done
to save money on our energy efficiency.
So that we don't have to use
the AC and the heaters much.
We have three more things
that we'll list in this video
that we've done early on in order
to make sure this is energy efficient.
- We chose to do two by six construction,
instead of two by four construction.
- Six inches by two
inches, you have more space
in-between the outside and
the inside of the home.
You have six inches of insulation
versus just the four inches.
Right now we're up in the bonus room
that I showed you in the last video.
When it comes to the roof for insulation,
places like this are really tough
because look how tight this is.
Look at this space.
Sometimes it's just hard to just stick
some insulation in there.
So what we're thinking about doing,
is potentially doing a spray insulation
which is like a foam.
It expands and fills
in every little crevice
and then they just like
come in and scrape it off.
How much more expensive do you think
it'd be if we did the spray foam?
- Probably close to three times as much
as normal insulation.
- Leslie.
- Well, I like to save money
but I also recognize energy
efficiency is important.
So, depends on what the number is
but I think it probably is worth it.
- All right.
Okay, the number five thing
that we did to save money
on energy efficiency,
we're in this little cave
that we built, which I love by the way.
Look at this.
Not sponsored by Bryant
but there is a Bryant HVAC.
We got this giant one with
the cotton candy alien things
that Lincoln likes to call them
right there, the transporters.
- Standard is 80% efficient.
We ended up upgrading you guys
to the 95% efficient unit.
- If I lived in San Diego,
like my friend Ben from Teslanomics.
I asked him, 'cause I know
he has solar in his house.
Like how much does your energy cost?
Here with Dixie Power, it's
six cents per kilowatt.
Is that what is?
Six cents per kilowatt.
Ben was telling me that during peak time,
which is pretty much the
entire day while the sun's up,
he can get up to 48 or
52 cents per kilowatt.
And so it's pretty ridiculous.
Like you pay off you solar in
a really short amount of time
where if we got solar
here, the rates are already
so inexpensive that it would
actually take us longer
to pay it back.
Instead of five years,
it might take 15 years
to pay back the cost of the solar.
Stay tuned for the next update video.
Let us know what you'd like to see in it
and we'll bring the kids to check it out.
We've got some crazy
stuff going on potentially
with the WiFi, the network, the speakers
and all kinds of stuff.
So get ready for some
fun smart home content
'cause it might blow your mind.
(upbeat music)
How are we supposed to get on the roof,
if we don't have ladder?
(engine revs)
- I never know about these plans of yours.
- It wasn't a plan.
It just happens.
I got the drone up here in the skies
so that we can get a shot.
So that if I do fall, at least we have it
from two camera angles.
- No standing.
- Take her up.
I'm ready.
Okay, it's going backwards.
Okay, I'm gonna hold on, yeah there we go.
(laughs)
Oh no, it's so far down there.
Look at my feet.
This is awesome and not safe.
This is the part where
I just casually walk
onto the house like a boss.
Yup.
Oh yes, I didn't fall.
We did it.
Are you getting some
good Instagram stories
of your smart husband?
- You're super smart.
- [Dan] Leslie, I'm gonna
give you the camera.
Say one, two, three.
You probably hve to open your eyes.
- Okay, go.
- [Dan] You sure you're good?
- It's giving me anxiety.
- [Dan] One, two, three
or three, two, one?
- Stop, just do it.
- Three, two, one.
(Leslie shrieks)
(Dan shouts)
Oh.
- It.
