cleaning panels

[welsummer]

is it important to wash or clean panels?
does it make any differance?

 

[telectrix]

i clean all the panels on my van. it makes a better impression having a clean van.

 

[FB.]

i clean all the panels on my van. it makes a better impression having a clean van.

If you turned up outside my house with a rusty, dented, dirty old van I wouldn't be impressed. It shows up even worse on white vans. So, yes, make sure you keep your panels clean.

 

[FB.]

is it important to wash or clean panels?
does it make any differance?

Most of the time rain washes the panels clean.
Occasionally a long dry spell might get them dusty, or lots of fallen leaves might cover the panels, or shallow-angled panels may not self-clean as easily (15 degree tilt is reckoned the minimum for panels to self-clean). Sometimes there is a high bird population (or your rooftop is a favourite roost) and the panels may be soiled with bird poo.

My panels don't look dirty other than always having the odd bird dropping on them. But I haven't yet cleaned mine (two years) and I haven't noticed any effect on output.

 

[welsummer]

is it important to wash or clean panels?
does it make any differance?

i,m not talking about vans but solar panels

 

[7029 dave]

i,m not talking about vans but solar panels

We all have a bit of banter on here you will get used to it!! Enjoy the forum lot of top people on here that know their stuff.

 

[telectrix]

dunno that much about solar, myself, just the basics. like they not going to perform well today.

 

[Silly Sausage]

They'll be nice and clean after today though!

 

[Worcester]

Yes it does make a difference, how much primarily depends upon the angle of elevation they are installed at.
We have maintenance contracts on all of our commercial installs, and our spring visit always includes a panel clean.

We use specialised equipment designed for the purpose, the number one item being pure water - removing all the suspended and dissolved solids else you'll end up like that streaky bathrooms mirror with nice loads of calcium deposits, plus NEVER EVER do it off a ladder. All our guys have cherry picker licences and we use water fed poles. No the equipment wasn't cheap, it is however effective, and that's what matters.

"Since the carport solar panels have no tilt, rain doesn't do a good job of rinsing off the dirt they collect. (Also, our carports are situated across from a sand field, which doesn't help the situation.) We cleaned these panels for the first time after they had been in operation for 15 months, and their energy output doubled overnight. When we cleaned them again eight months later, their output instantly increased by 36 percent. In fact, we found that cleaning these panels is the #1 way to maximize the energy they produce. As a result, we've added the carport solar panels to our spring cleaning checklist."

Google did a cost benefit analysis across its 1.6mW of installed panels Official Blog: Should you spring clean your solar panels?

We cleaned on of our arrays (mounted at 37°) and saw an immediate 10% increase, mind you bird s**t was the biggest problem on those..

 

[Gavin A]

We cleaned on of our arrays (mounted at 37°) and saw an immediate 10% increase, mind you bird s**t was the biggest problem on those..

sustained, or instantaneous?

if instantaneous, then I'd expect that was mostly down to the water cooling the panels down.

 

[solarfred]

I just checked a 27kw ground mount yesterday which has been in since the last day of the 43p; oh how fondly I remember that day .. anyway the guy had not cleaned the panels since and they are dusty with bird crap etc. Looking down the panel from above shows how much dirt had accumulated even at 35 pitch. There had been no noticeable reduction in output as he measures every day. He will get the gardener to give them a wash. Total generation way above the estimate (52000kwh) I also found out there was an error message on the SMA Tripower which had been tripping on start up "Insulation resist - check dc generator" - message. I guess this is likely to be a dodgy connection as there are a quite a few. After resetting apparently it runs fine the rest of the day.