A4 • Friday, October 15, 2021 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com SignalViewpoints Supercharging your home with a Tesla roof SEEN FROM SEASIDE R.J. MARX V isitors to South Edgewood Street in September might have been under the impression that Elon Musk had moved in. Stacks of boxes marked Tesla lay neatly stacked in the driveway and a fl eet of vans marked “Tesla” parked in front. When they fi rst got the dumpster and the pallets, homeowner Ronald Bynoe said, “it was really much more obvious because every pallet had boxes with the Tesla logo on it.” The driver delivering the port-a-potties warned Bynoe that this was a residential neighborhood, and Bynoe replied, I am a resident. “Then why do you have pallets of car parts?” the driver asked. Bynoe answered that the car parts were his new roof. “He had never heard that Tesla does roofs,” Bynoe said. “And I’ve had numerous neighbors come by and watch the whole process. Initially, they were also all very surprised that Tesla does roofi ng and that it can look like this. “It’s very unique, and it’s the fi rst of its kind in Seaside.” Bynoe, an engineer with Intel, has always been a bit of a tech nerd, he said. With his wife, Judith, a teacher, and their son, James, the family moved to Seaside from St. Helens a little more than a year ago. Noting that local electric power on the coast has “intermittent issues during the winter,” he wanted to secure his supply and also become a little bit greener. “We didn’t want to have that concern of ‘Well, the power went out, the refrigerator’s out, we can’t turn on our computers and our work is an hour-and-a-half away,” he said. “So it has made us want to be a little bit more proactive about keeping the power stable at the house.” They priced the roof and determined that while it was signifi cantly more expen- sive than a conventional roof, the Tesla roof stores more power than the house uses and could provide electricity savings for the life of the roof, which is guaranteed for 25 years. A regular roof for the 3,500-square-foot property would have been about $50,000, Bynoe said. The Tesla roof, including solar panels, batteries and installation, came to about $75,000. “It took about three weeks to install,” he said. “Tesla solar roofs do take longer than a regular roof, also because of COVID. They’ve had a hard time with staffi ng.” Other supply and labor delays also delayed the project substantially. The glass roof is a mix of inert glass panels and photovoltaic active solar tiles, Bynoe said, with metal fl ashing. They researched the Tesla roof and found that there is one in Astoria in a much ABOVE: Ronald Bynoe in front of his South Edgewood home. LEFT: Wall panels in the basement store electricity the homeowners can sell back to the power company for credits. smaller house, and they’ve done about 30 in the Portland metropolitan area. They are more popular in California and Hawaii, he said. “We got on a waiting list about a year ago and six months later approved for the process.” A local roofi ng company tore off the old roof like any other job. The next day, 36 pallets stacked three high were delivered and a contractor from Hillsboro came to begin the installation process. Plastic hooks and tabs are screwed down through that into the roof. Each panel latches into that and then plugs in. Fabric underlayment makes everything watertight. “If one panel breaks, they just unlatch it, unplug it and plug in its replacement,” he said. “The whole thing’s kind of like a fl oat- ing roof, in a sense sitting on these plastic tabs and wires underneath.” Any one of those can be removed indi- vidually, he said. Fabric underlayment makes everything watertight. “It’s eerie and it’s kind of unnerving, because it creaks a little bit when you walk on it,” he said, but sturdy enough to with- stand 138-mile-an-hour winds, and the stress of a 200-something pound person walking across it. The roof delivers 18.5-kilowatts, about twice the power of a traditional solar roof, Between two and three days power is stored in power walls, batteries in the garage. “Right now we’re paying a regular elec- tric bill at night,” Bynoe said. “During the daytime, we generate electricity and it either goes into the battery or we’ll get credit.” Two batteries automatically kick in when the power goes out, no more genera- tor needed. The Bynoes are still in the permitting process and haven’t signed any contracts with the utilities yet. When those are in place, they will sign a contract for wholesale power, selling power back to the power company. When those are in place, they will sign a contract allowing export of excess power generated back to the utility, eff ectively banking excess power for when there’s no sunshine, retrieving the credit at night. The family can track their power con- sumption on a 24-7 basis, showing how their power is stored during daylight hours. Graphs show spikes when the home appli- ances like washer, dryer and dishwasher are in use. If other homeowners make similar changes, there could become a “commu- nity power grid,” he said. “If we have a blackout, maybe the power doesn’t go out because there’s enough houses with bat- teries sharing it. Tesla has a virtual power plant with this setup in California.” Clatsop County sent someone out the next day, but the inspector wouldn’t do any- thing because he didn’t recognize the solar roofi ng material. “It was just something very new he hadn’t seen before,” Bynoe said. “So he wanted to be cautious about signing off on it because it’s structural as well as electricity generating. The Tesla rep said it can take up to three months for coun- ties to approve it.” Bynoe is patiently waiting for an OK from the county so he can put his invest- ment to work. A county inspector is sched- uled this week to review the project. This time Tesla is scheduling their electricians to be present during the inspection so that they can answer any questions he has while he’s here to ensure it has the best chance of success. PUBLIC MEETINGS First Interstate gives Spay & Neuter donation Seaside Signal First Interstate Bank of Sea- side delivered a $2,500 donation Thursday to the Spay and Neuter Thrift Shop. “They’re really good clients of ours, and they’re always very friendly,” branch manager Ashlee Gilbertson said. “We know they do a lot for the community. And so we wanted to give back and First Interstate is really about giv- ing back.” The shop, on the bank of the Necanicum, provides clothes, costumes, toys, puzzles and more, all to help off set costs of spaying and neutering of puppies and kittens. Even with reduced hours, the store has been “manic,” volun- teer and board member Marilyn Dito said. “We have a line when we open up.” The shop is always looking for donations, both thrift items and cash. Volunteers are also sought. “A lot of us are retired service industry people, a lot of teach- ers, nurses, airline stewardesses,” Dito said. After she retired from the phone company, she needed something to structure her day. “I came down here donate. And one thing led to another, Three hours became six, and then I became a board member. It’s all for a good cause.” The Spay and Neuter Thrift Shop is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from noon until 2 p.m. each of those days. There is usually someone at the shop on Wednesdays as well for donations at the back door. TUESDAY, OCT. 19 Seaside Planning Commission, 6 p.m., work session, 989 Broadway. Seaside School District, 6 p.m., seaside.k12. or.us/meetings. WEDNESDAY, OCT. 20 Seaside Tourism Advisory Committee, 3 p.m., 989 Broadway. THURSDAY, OCT. 21 Seaside Transportation Advisory Commis- sion, 6 p.m., 989 Broadway. MONDAY, OCT. 25 Seaside City Council, 7 p.m., cityofseaside.us. TUESDAY, OCT. 26 Sunset Empire Park and Recreation Dis- trict, 5:15 p.m., Bob Chisholm Community Center. R.J. Marx From left, Spay and Neuter Thrift Shop volunteers Cheryle Barker, Marilyn Dito, Gean Vandehey, Kari Douma, Cindy, Debbie, with Ashlee Gilbertson and Tracie Dice of First Interstate Bank of Seaside. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Seven-day construction week critical in Gearhart This letter was sent to Gear- hart Mayor Paulina Cock- rum and city councilors. It is reprinted at the writer’s request. Considering burdening the residents of weather challenged Gearhart with more restrictive work hours than Carmel, Cali- fornia, makes one wonder who you view as your constituents. Entitled retirees (some who have recently relocated to the community) or working fami- lies in the construction and land- scaping trades that provide jobs and services for the community and Gearhart property owners who want to build on their lots or remodel their properties? We started exterior carpen- try work and lead based paint abatement at the former Gear- hart school in early August 2021. Being able to work seven CIRCULATION MANAGER Shannon Arlint ADVERTISING SALES MANAGER Sarah Silver- Tecza PUBLISHER EDITOR Kari Borgen R.J. Marx Contact local agencies for latest meeting information and attendance guidelines. days a week under the exist- ing rules has been critical to us completing the job in 10 weeks and before the onset of win- ter. My opinion is that the vast majority of Gearhart property owners want to retain that same fl exibility when building or remodeling. Sunday we were able to get a carpentry crew to fi nish our fi nal exterior work that will allow us to complete painting Monday, which is expected to be a par- PRODUCTION MANAGER CONTRIBUTING WRITERS John D. Bruijn Skyler Archibald Joshua Heineman Katherine Lacaze Esther Moberg SYSTEMS MANAGER Carl Earl tially cloudy day. After that the forecast is for six consecutive rainy days. As you all know, this variable weather situation is not atypical in Gearhart. While I would prefer hav- ing Gearhart’s construction work hours match Warrenton’s (7 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday to Sunday), keep it simple and do not change our 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Sunday work hours. Bob Morey Gearhart TUESDAY, NOV. 2 Seaside Community Center Commission, 10 a.m., 1225 Avenue A. Seaside Library Board of Directors, 4:30 p.m., 1131 Broadway St. Seaside Planning Commission, 6 p.m., 989 Broadway. WEDNESDAY, NOV. 3 Seaside Improvement Commission, 6 p.m., 989 Broadway. Gearhart City Council, 7 p.m., cityofgearhart. com. THURSDAY, NOV. 4 Seaside Parks Advisory Committee, 6 p.m., 989 Broadway. MONDAY, NOV. 8 Seaside City Council, 7 p.m., cityofseaside. us. Seaside Signal Letter policy Subscriptions The Seaside Signal is published every other week by EO Media Group, 1555 N. Roosevelt, Seaside, OR 97138. 503-738-5561 seasidesignal.com Copyright © 2021 Seaside Signal. Nothing can be reprinted or copied without consent of the owners. The Seaside Signal welcomes letters to the editor. The deadline is noon Monday prior to publication. Letters must be 400 words or less and must be signed by the author and include a phone number for verifi cation. We also request that submissions be limited to one letter per month. Send to 1555 N. Roosevelt Drive, Seaside, OR 97138, drop them off at 1555 N. Roosevelt Drive or fax to 503-738-9285, or email rmarx@seasidesignal.com Annually: $51.00, monthly autopay is $4.25 e-Edition only: $4 a month POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Seaside Signal, P.O. Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103. Postage Paid at Seaside, OR, 97138 and at additional mailing offi ces. Copyright © 2021 by the Seaside Signal. No portion of this newspaper may be reproduced without written permission. All rights reserved.