Solar Panel Maintenance: Step-by-Step Guide to Clean and Repair Solar Panels
Being a homeowner, investing in solar panels would be one of the major decisions in your life. Since it reduces the carbon footprint and offers a highly renewable energy source, solar panels have seen a surge in demand.
Solar panels also eliminate the hassle of scary electric bills, which is a major concern to many house owners. If you have already installed a solar power system for your home, what would be your next challenge?
Timely solar panel maintenance is necessary to help them function efficiently for a long time. While the major part of maintenance and repair would need the assistance of an expert, donât you feel that it would be great if you can do some of the maintenance yourself?
This solar panel maintenance guide focuses on bringing you the best steps to clean and repair solar panels that keep them functioning great.
How often do solar panels need maintenance?
Periodic cleaning of solar panels avoids the chances of debris, dirt, leaves, or snow getting accumulated and obstructing the sunlight. Also, cleaning panels regularly can enhance the efficiency of your solar panel system.
Solar panel experts state that you must clean the Solar power system for your home once every 6 months. But there could be instances where you should do it in more frequent intervals or wait for more time to clean them.
Wonder what would be those conditions? Letâs consider an example: if your climate is dry, then the panels easily get accumulated with dust, and maybe this demands more frequent cleaning.
Hence, cleaning every six months is a baseline; to be more precise, cleaning at the offset of summer and winter would help you eliminate most of the build-ups and residues together at a time.
5 Steps to Clean and maintain your Solar Panels
It is exciting to do your part to solve certain common issues that affect the working of your solar panels. Here are the five simple steps you can adopt to easily clean or repair the solar panels all by yourself:
1. Avoid shading of solar panels
Ensure you cut the branches or trim the trees in case they shade the solar panels. This helps to retain the efficiency of the panels.
2. Track the inverter every day
Make certain you monitor the solar system components and check whether they show any potential damage to the system.
3. Measure the daily energy yield
Keep a note of daily solar-power production and understand whether the solar panels are working at their required efficiency. If the deviations occur due to any weather fluctuations, you need not worry. Otherwise, you would need to clean the panels or call a service expert based on the situation.
4. Ensure you get panels serviced every year
You should consider servicing the solar panels at least once a year. You can seek the help of trained technicians who can look into the panels and perform the service whenever required. If you are new to installing a solar system, the best solar system installers can help you with the best solar systems and installation services.
5. Clean your solar panels regularly
If you wonder if you can clean the solar panels yourself, yes you can! And here are the tips you should take care of to protect, maintain and retain the life of your panels.
- Shut down the solar panels during cleaning and turn off the main switch.
- Keep a note of the user manual and understand the special-care guide. Clean the panels at a cool temperature, you can consider morning to clean since you get enough daylight and the morning moisture eases your cleaning process.
- Avoid using hard soaps and pressure washers to clean panels, use a soft cloth and distilled regular water.
- Using a soft brush and broom is advisable to clean the solar panels. However, using hard cleaning materials can cause scratches and damages to the panels.
Final Note
Just like you make regular dental checkups or make vehicle inspections periodically, the Solar power system for your home also needs a regular checkup. It gives you a chance to safeguard the health of the system and optimize installation, which establishes the cleanest energy possible. The professional solar panels and battery services in Perth can help you with the best solar power systems, where you need not worry about any critical damage or unnecessary maintenance to your solar panels.
