59K SAWD - After Purchase Mods Thread 📐

[TarheelCT]

I came to the same conclusion from just pictures. Which under the screen storage did you pick?

This one. Fits firm/tight and no creaks. Looks good too.

https://a.co/d/0gf5fkbF

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[Zwick]

This solar vendor does things differently. It’s why I finally decided to go solar. They own, maintain, upgrade/update the system, as well as insuring the system, and my roof. I pay them for the power production of the system. Zero up front cost, and no extra fees. Their pricing is about $150 per month less than a Tesla lease, but this isn’t a lease, it’s a power buy plan. I can also terminate the agreement after 3 years, and they’ll remove everything and repair my roof. We plan to live here for around 10 more years. We just built this home a year ago. We actually closed 1 year ago this month. I would probably request them to remove the system, when the house goes on the market in the future, unless markets change, and solar is not considered a negative.
I don’t know how much this system would cost to purchase. But I priced a similar system on Tesla. It had 4 fewer panels, with lower production, and 27 kWh of battery instead of 40 kWh. The Tesla system was $83,264.
For now, I should have enough production to meet 90% of my needs during peak months, and excess during off peak. I have 40 kWh of backup battery storage, so I should never need grid energy during peak times. This should allow us to switch to time of use, and go from $0.16/ kWh to $0.05, as we should only need to buy during super off peak hours, and even then, only during summer months. This strategy should make a dramatic difference on cost of energy consumption.
Terra will also update or upgrade the system as technology improves, or demand requires. I’m pretty sure we will need more energy, but were limited by usable roof space. If panels improve efficiency in the next few years, they’ll do a free upgrade.
Since the majority of my roof is now covered by solar panels, we will gain a shade effect for our attic. AI suggests this can decrease attic temps significantly, reducing our homes cooling load. A byproduct of solar, may be less cooling demand. I added soft start to both AC compressors, dropping startup load from 128 amps to 20 amps, so everything should run cleanly off solar and batteries, without needing grid help for start up load. I installed the micro soft start flex 398 starters on my condensers because they are the simplest, almost plug and play. You do have to cut one wire, but they provide simple connectors, that make even that, plug and play.
I honestly don’t know how this will financially work out. I’ve looked and looked for gotchas in the fine print. I can’t find them. So i figured I’d give it a shot, and possibly learn a valuable lesson. We were considering a backup generator. We asked the generac rep at Costco, and he estimated $17 to $20k installed. That sort of sealed the deal for me wanting solar and batteries. Right after we started building, this neighborhood lost power for a week during a hurricane. I do not want to be without power in south FL. With this system, we won’t be, unless the house is damaged. But we are far enough in from the coast, it’s fairly unlikely.
The main key for me was the 3 year minimum. We always live in a house for 4.5 years minimum. The only reason we would likely move before 10 years, is if the value to do so was impossible to turn down, which has happened many times. But then, the solar would not be a negative.
Our home, and 3 Teslas (Cybertruck will be our 4th Tesla) are all set, no matter what happens with the grid.

We bought our Solar gear outright. It is a significant investment, but it is much more affordable if you are willing to install it yourself. We are building a home on acreage which is expected to be a generational home. So resale impact is less of a concern. Also we have room to avoid roof mount, so panels are mounted so they can be optimally aimed. We expect to be fully off-grid capable, but grid is nearby if needed. Installed ~25kw of panels and ~120kwh battery backup.

 

[Trbizwiz]

We bought our Solar gear outright. It is a significant investment, but it is much more affordable if you are willing to install it yourself. We are building a home on acreage which is expected to be a generational home. So resale impact is less of a concern. Also we have room to avoid roof mount, so panels are mounted so they can be optimally aimed. We expect to be fully off-grid capable, but grid is nearby if needed. Installed ~25kw of panels and ~120kwh battery backup.

If I owned property, that would also be my preference!

 

[Lyonessjo]

This one. Fits firm/tight and no creaks. Looks good too.

https://a.co/d/0gf5fkbF

THANK YOU SO MUCH! I saw this a long time ago but could not ever find it again. I

 

[Cyberton]

I apologize if this has been covered already but I've not seen it discussed, at least in this thread anyway.

Does anyone have any ideas or insight on how to get a 120 volt AC outlet into the cabin of the 59k Cybertruck?

It seems like a very useful feature to have (refrigerator, laptop, etc) and at the same time a small cost savings to have removed it versus having it in the premium version.

 

[TarheelCT]

I apologize if this has been covered already but I've not seen it discussed, at least in this thread anyway.

Does anyone have any ideas or insight on how to get a 120 volt AC outlet into the cabin of the 59k Cybertruck?

It seems like a very useful feature to have (refrigerator, laptop, etc) and at the same time a small cost savings to have removed it versus having it in the premium version.

I would agree. I have to wonder what’s behind the rear center console where the 2x USBC outlets are.

 

[comet2]

I would agree. I have to wonder what’s behind the rear center console where the 2x USBC outlets are.

I agree. That’s something I would be very interested in.

 

[Zwick]

Just did a deep dive into the front outlet issue with SuperGrok. It reports that there is nothing wiring wise in the cab to help with getting direct 110/120V power there. Suggested approaches were using an inverter off of the 48V system (limited to 400W and risks negative impacts on the 48V system (yikes)). If using 48V system, it should only be tapped into in the Frunk or the passenger side B-pillar, there are apparently wiring harness connection points in those locations. Other suggested option was highly discouraged (but is more appealing to me personally)involved running appropriate wiring from the bed outlets to the cab. SuperGrok indicated that this could be done routing wiring under panels and such but would be a challenging task and should only be attempted by advanced DIYers.

 

[Zwick]

On the bright side for me, one of the main reasons I wanted a 110V outlet was for the laptop in the mobile office. Yes, our main laptop with everything on it still uses a 19V barrel power connector. Turns out if you don't need more than 65W, USB-C to 19V barrell adapters are widely available.

 

[Cyberton]

So I have a laptop that uses a 65 watt power supply but the power connector of the laptop is USB-C. Does that imply that I could use a USB-C to USB-C cable to power the laptop?

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