How Often Should You Clean Your Solar Panels?
Your solar panels do not collect energy at night. During a full moon on Halloween the panels may register a voltage with a multimeter, but you’re not going to run household appliances regardless of how many hounds are up on the hill howling.
When the panels are denied sunlight they do not produce electricity. At night time there’s no sun so no electricity will be generated. On a cloudy day your panels will produce less electricity because the panels will be denied some of the sunlight which would enable them to operate at full capacity.
A tree in your neighbour’s yard casting a shadow over the panels will block solar radiation exposure and therefore the panels will not operate as efficiently.
Even if your panels have a direct line of sight to the sun every hour of the day, their performance may still be diminished if they are dirty or covered in bird droppings. Allowing the maximum amount of solar radiation to access the panels every day will allow the panels to operate at their peak performance.
The performance of a solar panel reduces by about 1% per year. If you have solar panels that are 20 years old, then your panels are performing at only about 80% of their designed capacity. Solar panels of that vintage were not manufactured to perform with the efficiency enjoyed by more modern models.
There are a number of factors that affect the efficiency of a solar panel including the angle that the panel has been mounted, the orientation of the panel to the equator, heat and the number of diodes on each unit. Diodes are merely electrical valves that only permit electricity to travel in one direction.
The efficiency of commercial solar panels being able to turn solar radiation into electricity has increased from about 12% in the 1960s to more than 20% which is a far cry from the 1% efficiency when they were invented in 1839. There is a good chance that the solar panels on your roof were not made in 19th-century however the older they are, chances are, the less efficient they will be. If you want them working as optimally as possible they need to be kept clean of contaminants on their surface and be permitted to directly access the sun each day for as long as possible.
Do modern panels still produce electricity whilst they are in the shade? Yes they do, but they work a lot more efficiently when exposed to the sun. If you have solar panels on your roof, you would want them to work as efficiently as possible. People who have the capacity to export their excess electricity into the grid, especially those Australians who had their systems approved before 2012 and can access a high feed in tariff, would do well to keep their panels nice and shiny and clean. Even if you’re a newcomer to the solar family, it is in your best interest for your panels to be as efficient as possible, so keeping the panels clean should be considered general household maintenance.
How often should you clean your solar panels… as often as they need it?
Motor vehicles that travel only on sealed roads within the city or suburban areas need only clean or replace their air filters at the scheduled intervals. If however, you spend most of your life passing cars on dusty roads, your servicing schedules need to address those circumstances. The same applies to your solar panels.
They need cleaning when they need cleaning and they need cleaning when dust or dirt or bird droppings restrict solar access to the panel. The best way to know when that is, is to just take a look.
You don’t need to be a qualified electrician to determine if the solar panels are dirty and not operating efficiently. Whatever area you live in, you may well find that it generally takes a certain amount of time for dirt to accumulate on the panels and frequently this is seasonally adjusted. Within a couple of years of observing the cleanliness of the solar panels on your roof you may well be able to establish a reliable cleaning schedule.
The best time to clean your solar panels is when they need cleaning….. >> LEARN MORE >>
John Lynn
Suburban Off Grid Living