Solar Panel Cleaning
Solar Panel Cleaning is Required for Optimum Performance
Solar panel cleaning is not that different from cleaning your windscreen. You can do it yourself, or have other people do it for you.
A solar panel typically consists of solar cells covered by a protective glass coating, and just like your car windscreen – the longer it's outside – the more likely it will get dirty and need to be cleaned.
How much Electricity do Dirty Solar Panels Lose?
Pollution, traffic dust, leaves and even bird droppings contribute to preventing sunlight from reaching the solar cells in your solar panels.
The more dirt – the lower amount of electricity they will produce. While many factors affect how much electricity your solar panels will produce – dirty solar panels can be one of the biggest, and easiest to fix.
Experts agree that dirty solar panels don't produce as much power as clean panels. That loss may range as high as 25% in some areas according to the National Renewable Energy laboratory. Individual dealers have reported losses as high as 55% for some customers who failed to ever clean their panels.
Warning! How NOT to clean solar panels:
Hosing the solar panels down: This will leave hard water spots on the photovoltaic solar panels, reducing the efficiency. It will not clean the solar panels very well; it just washes off some of the dirt. You could crack the solar panels if you use cold tap water on the hot solar panels.
Chemicals: using chemicals or detergents could damage the solar panels. It will also leave a residue, which holds onto dirt, reducing efficiency dramatically.
How We Clean Solar Panels
Installation companies recommend a twice yearly clean to keep your panels running efficiently.
We use only purified, de-ionised water to clean Solar Panels (no chemicals at all).
Cleaning is carried out by using an ultra light carbon fibre pole running pure de-ionised water to a soft brush head which is used to gently lift dust, dirt, algae and bird droppings. This cleaning system leaves panels crystal clear.
