Cleaning Off Solar Panels

Rain will rinse the larger debris off however we found that the 1 way to maximize the solar energy produced is by cleaning the panels.

Cleaning off solar panels.

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. 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. 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. All the electrical stuff is safely protected with aluminum frames hardened glass and insulation. This is where cleaning solar panels may have to be done. Olson recommends homeowners use a soft bristle brush with an extended handle like the type used to clean off an rv.

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. We ll get to the best way to clean your solar panels in a minute. In most cases you won t need to clean your solar panels often if at all. However cleaning is one aspect of solar panel maintenance that should not be taken lightly.

The day your solar panels are installed is the day you will get the best performance out of them. How to clean solar panels. 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. Fortunately cleaning solar panels is easy for ground mounted systems or for rooftop solar systems on a typical one story house.

One of the reasons for this is dirt. Google did a study on the need to clean solar panels. Grime and bird poop doesn t need to cover an entire panel to have an effect. After that it is all down hill.

Simply put if you can clean a window you can clean a solar panel. They found that tilted panels don t require cleaning as much as flat panels. As soon as your panels are out in the open in the clean air or not so clean air dust. In this article you will learn how to clean solar panels the right way.

They may look scary and technical but in fact the technology is securely sealed inside the solar panel. How to clean your solar panels. After all anything that accumulates dirt on them for example dust or pollen will get washed off the next time it rains. Cleaning ones solar panels is not hard at all.

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. There are some times it might make sense to clean your solar panels though.