Solar Panel Maintenance, Solar Panel Cleaning, Clean Solar Panels
Posted by easy eco blog
Cleaning Solar Panels
Once you get your solar panels installed, you will find them fairly maintenance free. Most are rated for a 30 year lifetime. As you can see from the above picture, solar panels can get dirty. Pollen, bird droppings, dirt, and dust can build up on solar panels. We try to clean solar panels at least two times a year. March/April when the rainy season has passed, and August/September, towards the end of summer. Pollen from nearby evergreens really sticks to the panels. Try to clean that off before it bonds, otherwise a cleaner like Windex would be needed.
We have found a 10-15% decrease in solar output when solar panels are dirty.
Sungevity has a free solar panel analysis for California residents.
We gently hose off our solar panels and use a soft car wash brush to lightly scrub the dirt off when doing solar panel cleaning. Check with your solar panel manufacturer to verify the best way to clean your solar panels. We have heard that people with hard water may need to wash their solar panels using a delivered water service, so check into that if your water is hard. Clean solar panels are worth the effort.
You may also need to trim back trees or plants that block the sun. We have had to do this every 5 years or so.
Too lazy to do your own solar panel maintenance? There are companies that will do solar panel cleaning for you.
Checking Solar Panel Operation
The only other part of solar panel maintenance is monitoring their energy output and ensuring there are no malfunctions. Check and log the power output on your solar inverters display on a daily or monthly basis. With this data, you can then check to see if your solar panels are functioning at full efficiency. Solar panels produce different amounts of power during the year, so keeping a baseline measurement helps.
Be sure to ready our other solar panel – solar power articles:
Are Solar Panels for me? – Site Planning – Different Kinds of Panels – Actual Quote
Related posts:
- Picking Solar Panels – Finding the Best Solar Panels
- Solar Panel System Quote
- Sungevity $0 Solar Panel Promotion
- No Money Down Free Solar Panels – Lease Solar Equipment
- Solar Panel Installation – Planning
- San Francisco Solar Panel Discount
- SolarMagic Solar Power Optimizer
- Are Solar Panels for me?
Filed under: Alternative Energy, Cleaning, Conservation, Easy, Eco Friendly, Effort, Energy, Green, Home, Money | Tags: Clean Solar Panels, Dirty solar panels, Solar Panel Inverter, Solar Panel Maintenance
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7 Responses to “Solar Panel Maintenance, Solar Panel Cleaning, Clean Solar Panels”
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April 29th, 2009 at 11:24 am
There is also a company (Heliotex I believe) that makes special water sprayers that you mount on your roof next to your solar panels. The system filters the water and apparently even allows you to add a biodegradable soap to clean your solar panels automatically.
April 29th, 2009 at 11:00 pm
Just a heads up. there are a few companies out there that try to sell you cleaner specifically for solar panels. i’ve tried a couple and believe soft water and a light brush as the author suggested.
June 17th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
Solar panels’ efficiency is constantly improving, thanks to immense technology development efforts that achieve improvement increments of a few percent. Regrettably, mediocre dirt and dust hamper sunlight transmission to the solar cells, and consequently reduce their throughput substantially. Cleaning the panels is a costly operation and therefore cannot be a practical solution. TitanShield SolarCoat is an optimal solution to the problem! This innovative photocatalyst material is sprayed on the surface of the solar panel and will avoid accumulation of dirt. Not only that, due to its special optical characteristics, TitanShield SolarCoat will diminish the loss of solar radiation through the glass of the panel by 5% (by reducing glare and thus reflection from the panel, as well as other losses). TitanShield SolarCoat is inherently a UV radiation mask. This helps to prolong the useful life of the DSSC cells that are susceptible to UV radiation. Once coated, the TitanShield SolarCoat will last and function for the entire lifetime of the solar panel. We offer here a holistic environmentally friendly solution that eliminates the use of water and detergents for cleaning the panels, while saving considerable expenses.
October 15th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
We use SOLAR MAID for our commercial systems, they are really good and the offset in the cost to the performance is a no-brainer.
We highly recommend these guys and best of all they are a franchise, so there is a Solar Maid operator near you. Plus they use their own organic cleaning soltuion and my boss swears that there is something in that solution that boosts our power output (they won’t devulge that info)
May 27th, 2010 at 10:09 am
[...] It is a great time to go solar. The Federal 30% Tax Credit is now uncapped. Panels are more efficient than ever. A solar system can pay itself back in 7-10 years. There are no money down leasing options that drop your monthly bill and require no large initial outlay. Solar Panels require a little Maintenance and cleaning. [...]
July 11th, 2010 at 8:03 am
Hi,
We are about to enter into agreement with a municipality to maintain their solar panel for them to be more effective.
This maintainenance should be total from panel surface cleaning to bulb replacement regularly when they are dead.
Could you recommend companies with this experience that can work with us in West Africa and Southern Africa.
Many thanks for your anticipated cooperation.
Regards,
Bola
September 2nd, 2010 at 9:03 am
[...] Panels will need occasional solar panel cleaning. Home Power Magazine covers the solar scene. [...]