Don’t all the lovely gadgets at home that make life much easier deserve the right cleaning and maintenance? So do your solar panels too. You would have brought it in with dreams of a sustainable lifestyle hoping to make peace with nature. You can get the best quality solar panels in Sri Lanka from St. Anthony’s Solar. Hence, you have to give them the attention and care they need to serve you the best. Solar power generation highly depends on how clean you can keep your panels. Give your best shot at cleaning to ensure the optimal lifespan of your solar panel. Let’s look at how we can clean and maintain solar panels more efficiently.
What blocks your solar panel?
Anything like dust or dirt may cover your solar panel. Accumulation of dust on the PV module of the solar panel over days and months reduces the efficiency of energy generation. That doesn’t mean you need to clean it every day but you cannot let dust collect for months on end. You’re lucky to have rain to wash off some dust. The location where your panel is fixed plays a greater role in how the system functions. According to the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), there’s a 30% loss in energy per year due to a lack of monthly cleaning. Bird droppings are even bigger trouble. If you have trees nearby you might have to hire cleaning services to regularly clean built-up soil and leaves blocking light.
Wondering how to go about cleaning your solar panel?
The first thing you need to do before you start cleaning is to check your user manual and shut down the whole system. Try to avoid climbing onto the roof and it’s better if you can clean. Use a normal hose that dashes out water faster on the panel from the ground. An ideal time to clean your solar panel is a cool mild day. If the weather is too hot and you pour cold water due to the sudden temperature change your panel may crack easily. Due to overheating water might evaporate quickly and leave dirty marks before you can properly clean. If you see stubborn dirt go with a soft sponge, cloth, or brush and mild detergent.
Seek out professional help to clean your solar panels!
If you are living in an urban area and the environment is highly polluted you might have to hire professional services once in a while for better maintenance. If you see that you are unable to clean that stubborn layer of grime without damaging the panel it’s wiser to hire someone who can do it well.
Want to know how to keep your solar panels clean and efficient?
Though you can clean your solar panels by yourself or even hire professional help, industrial innovations provide you with even better solutions to keep your solar panels clean and efficient. You can get special coatings to repel dust and avoid panels getting dirty. There is also a possibility to use robotic cleaners that can do the cleaning at night without using water. Kipp & Zonen commercial tool is designed to measure dirt levels of the solar panels. There are many other innovations out there to keep your solar panels clean. Investing in a solar panel is a smart decision to avoid your burden of paying for electricity and most importantly you choose to go green and help healing the earth. You can get quality solar panels in Sri Lanka from St. Anthony’s Solar to make your green dream true.