Cleaning Off Solar Panels

Olson recommends homeowners use a soft bristle brush with an extended handle like the type used to clean off an rv.

Cleaning off solar panels.

Solar panels are generally self cleaning but in particularly dry areas or where panel tilt is minimal dust and other substances such as bird droppings can build up over time and impact on the amount electricity generated by a module. In this article you will learn how to clean solar panels the right way. Fortunately cleaning solar panels is easy for ground mounted systems or for rooftop solar systems on a typical one story house. However cleaning is one aspect of solar panel maintenance that should not be taken lightly.

All the electrical stuff is safely protected with aluminum frames hardened glass and insulation. After all anything that accumulates dirt on them for example dust or pollen will get washed off the next time it rains. Google did a study on the need to clean solar panels. They found that tilted panels don t require cleaning as much as flat panels.

After that it is all down hill. As soon as your panels are out in the open in the clean air or not so clean air dust. That s kind of the same logic for solar panels too. In most cases you won t need to clean your solar panels often if at all.

We ll get to the best way to clean your solar panels in a minute. This is essential to guarantee your safety and to make sure that the solar panels won t get damaged by water inside the junction box exposed wires or broken seals while dc electricity is flowing through the. And don t forget to choose an environmentally friendly soap. Grime and bird poop doesn t need to cover an entire panel to have an effect.

This is where cleaning solar panels may have to be done. The day your solar panels are installed is the day you will get the best performance out of them. Sunbridge solar s system is a low tilt 10 degrees and it s overall power reduction due to the 2017 eagle creek forest fire ash resulted in a 53 reduction. There are some times it might make sense to clean your solar panels though.

Your solar panels need to be exposed to sunlight in order to produce power. Admittedly it is a very shallow hill and it might take over 40 years to get to the bottom but day one is going to be as good as it gets. However unless you live somewhere with high amounts of smog dust dirt or sand blowing around solar panel cleaning is generally not necessary in most cases occasional rain will be enough to naturally and safely keep your solar panels clean and free of debris that could lower production. Solar panels does not have any moving parts which is why there s not a whole lot of maintenance to take care of.

They may look scary and technical but in fact the technology is securely sealed inside the solar panel. But first let s look at when and why you might need to invest in solar panel cleaning equipment or hire a professional cleaning service. How to clean your solar panels. The first step that you need to think of before cleaning your solar panels is to turn off the dc switch located in the combiner box.

Cleaning ones solar panels is not hard at all. One of the reasons for this is dirt.