Cleaning fixed rooftop solar panels
It's probably been discussed before but I can't seem to find anything.
Just wondering what others think regarding cleaning fixed (flat) rooftop solar panels on leisure vehicles. Is it necessary and if so how often ?
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Is it necessary and if so how often ?
When they are dirty? Seriously though I have never seen anybody clean those on house roofs but they are angled and don't park under trees etc. I don't have a solar panel but if I had I would not have thought it necessary to wash more than every 6 months to stop bird muck accumulating. Obviously there might be a need for some to brush snow off
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I clean mine in the spring,along with the roof,and then spray the entire roof with "wet and forget"The summer and autumn rain the keep it clean until the spring!The wet and forget can be sprayed under the panel and other hard to clean areas of the roof(sat.dome etc) and the rain then gets rid of the algea etc
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Not heard of 'wet and forget' so shall keep it in mind. I do tend to wash it Spring also other times if needed. Just seeing the rooftops of some M'homes when on the ferry made me wonder if it was necessary as some did not look as though they had had any attention for quite a while.
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My testing with our 12 year old Kyocera 85 Watt panel certainly indicates a significant drop in yield, even from a blade of grass shadow thrown across the panel.
This is indicating to me things like a bird dropping or wet leaf is going to significantly affect performance.
I am aware the diodes interconnecting the crystal clusters plays a part, and maybe more recent panels have far more of these embedded in the panels build? This, also of course better facilitates with a house installation of multiple panels, the opportunity to "buffer" each panel from the other far more than we can with our leisure vehicle single or double panel setups. Most house installations have the panels set at an angle to optimise performance and this must help the natural cleaning better than our van installations
Mine is a free standing panel, so I can readily and do wipe it over nearly every time it is deployed. From this I can assure you when pollen is abundant my the panel gets heavily dusted, and if followed by a dew laden morning this can be moved into dense lines of pollen at the edges of the run offs. From my work with shadows, I can't see these pollen streaks but impacting on the panel's yield.
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BUT..... how do the clean the roof area underneath the panel which if you have a SEVEL van conversion is "corrugated" steel ?
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We were told not to use a detergent on our solar panels on the roof at home. The advice we got is just to give them a wash with plain water and a soft type brush (we have a bungalow) OH did this year for the first time in 8 years.
The one on the van roof again told just use plain warm water and soft cloth or brush. It will need it when we get back with the pollen and dust collected on this trip. I like the idea of using Rain X, DD thanks.
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And your neighbours roof is may of............??
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