How To Maintain Solar Panels

You spend a fortune to buy solar panels. Surely they are worth the money as they can give you renewable and eco-friendly energy for a long time. As it is a huge investment, you should maintain and properly clean it from time to time. Its maintenance and cleanliness are important to preserve its efficiency, functioning, and lifetime. Don’t know how to maintain solar panels? Worry not as this writing is all about the maintenance and cleanliness of solar panels. In this article, we will provide you awesome tips that you can take help from for making sure your solar panels work perfectly fine. What are you waiting for? Scroll down and make your solar panel cleaning and maintenance task easy and simple.

Some of the easy steps which will help you to maintain solar panels at home

You may ask the question, “Do I need to clean my solar panels?” Well, the answer to your question is 100% yes. Next, you may ask “How many times should I clean it?” It depends on the type of solar panels you have. You may need to clean it once a week or a month. You can ask your solar panel provider or manufacturer to tell you the frequency of solar panel cleaning. Do not use harsh cleaning chemicals that could damage the panels.

Tips for Solar Panel Cleaning

• There are solar panel cleaning kits that anyone can use with ease. These handy kits include a long handle brush or a small brush, biodegradable soap, and a wiper. 
• For making the soap mixture, mix the soap in a bucket full of water. See the bottle packaging for the instructions. Take a brush and dip it in the water. Take the dipped brush and start wiping your solar panels in a gentle way. Use a soft brush or just plain water to get rid of any built-up dirt or grime on your solar panels.
• You should use a long-handled wiper in order to wash the solar panels while standing at some safe distance on the ground. It is important for your own safety, the safety of solar panels, and people around you if they are any
• People think that cleaning solar panels is hard but it’s the opposite; It is a very easy task. You should clean dirt or residue stuck on the solar panels when they are wet. The wet surface of the solar panel makes it effortless for you to clean it.
• Avoid using abrasive soap or sponge for cleaning your solar panel. It is so because cleaning it with something like an abrasive soap can result in scratching of the glass. Using a biodegradable soap or a soft rag is the ideal way to clean your solar panels.
• If dirt is built upon your solar panel, it cannot absorb sunlight properly. So, make sure to remove all dirt build-ups from your solar panel so that it can absorb more sunlight and in an effective way.
• It is pretty clear that you must get on the roof to clean your solar panel. So, take proper care as once you start cleaning your panel, you could slide or slip off when you get down as the roof becomes quite slippery. Therefore, you should use a harness or safety ropes for support.
• It is crucial to avoid using harsh materials when cleaning your solar panels as they could cause extreme damage to your solar panels. Once damaged, it can cost you a lot to repair them.

 

Maintenance Tips of Solar Panels

• To improve the performance of your solar panel, note its everyday performance. You should note the amount of energy being produced at one specific time every day. Do this practice especially on rainy or cloudy days. You can ask your manufacturer to give you the best monitoring system for your solar panel. 
• A monitoring system can help you observe and note how much CO2 is being emitted in the atmosphere and how much you are benefiting your environment. You can also use it to know how much you can take advantage of the feed-in tariff scheme. You can check information about the solar panel servicing on a wall-mounted display when you are at your home.
• For those people who don’t have time to clean solar panels, they can install automated cleaners that function similar to sprinkler systems. You may also get an appointment with high-quality and professional solar panel cleaning companies.
• You should keep the solar panels in shadeless places because if they are kept at a place where they cannot absorb any sunlight, solar panels will become inefficient and ineffective.
• Always keep your eyes on the solar panels and ensure that the inverters are always flashing bright green lights. If they ain’t flashing, most likely you are losing your hard-earned money by no longer compensating for your use of electricity. 

• Fortunately, as common solar panels have no moving parts that could break down or be affected by rust or break down, you may not need to maintain your solar panel.

Additional ways for solar panel maintenance:

The best way to clean solar panels by using a soft rag or biodegradable soap. It is important not to use harsh materials when cleaning solar panels as they could cause damage, and solar panels are costly to repair. If you clean often, you might be able to just run a hose along the panels to remove any dirt. Once the panels have been mounted, you need to ensure shades do not come up such as new towering trees, as this will decrease the amount of energy produced by the system.

If you have no time for cleaning solar panels, you can install automated cleaners that work like sprinkler systems or even schedule appointments with solar panel cleaning companies. If you have a lot of trees nearby, especially deciduous ones, they will not only drop leaves on your rooftop, they will also attract birds. Both of these cause build-up and debris over time, making it more important to regularly employ solar panel cleaning services or efforts.

Is there a maintenance difference for Ground panels vs. roof panels?

There exists only one difference between maintaining roof solar systems and ground solar systems. The difference is that roof solar panels are hard to reach and therefore, difficult to keep clean. Whereas, ground solar panels are easily reachable and hence, can be cleaned effortlessly. If you observe a buildup of debris such as snow, you can just sweep it off using a broom.

Conclusion

If you properly maintain and clean your solar panel, it can last for more than 25 years. This means unlimited renewable, cheap, and environmentally friendly energy for a huge period. If they aren’t maintained, they can be damaged which may end up in poor performance and degraded efficiency of the solar panels. So you should maintain and clean them from time to time. Learn more about solar panel maintenance. We have provided you with the best tips which will prove to be helpful in cleaning and maintaining your solar panels.