Anyone with good cleaning tips?

[silversaver]

I did clean my panels once just to test if I can clean them on my own. Bought the brass nozzle from HomeDepot seem to do the trick. My ladder weren't tall enough so I jump on top of my patio cover lol As I recall, there's people will come to clean the solar panel for $80 if you don't have the access to your roof top. My suggestion is wait for rain if you cannot access to your roof top, you don't want to end up with more broken tiles on the roof........

[bando]

Funny you should mention it. Since yesterday and today (I'm wagering) will be nearly identical solar irradiance except for 1/13 to 1/14 increase day/day, as an experiment I washed my array with water and a soft cloth on a 10 ft. extension pole about 0715 this A.M . I'll see if I can identify a difference after I compare array output and irradiance levels as recorded by my weather station for the 2 days. This is 1st wash since array assembly mid Oct. Early data today seems to show not much diff., but S.P. monitor crapped out after 0900 this A.M. which happens on a regular basis. Their monitoring is not real reliable IMO and a disappointment to me. Stay tuned - film at 11.

BTW, when you array was new, the sun was a lot "higher" in the sky your output will be greater then than now because of the lower angle that the sun makes with the line normal to the array during the day.

ok great, looking forward to your results! and you are right - our 10kw+ readings were all in the first week of december ...

i don't know why we get so much dust around here, it's not a super new area, although there has been some road construction about 1/2 mile east of me in Santaluz. very annoying that the panels look so gross already. how did yours look before washing? maybe the SP run off dirt/dust better?

[J.P.M.]

We have had a pretty bad drought here in So Cal and our panels have been getting very dusty every day. To make matters worse, the night temps fall into the 40's while the day temps are in the 70's and 80's, meaning there is a significant amount of morning dew and condensation dripping down the panels, creating this 6" bleed line at the bottom that is basically CAKED-ON dirt.

I got a $8 brass nozzle jet for the hose and was able to spray down the panels as much as I could, but the smaller array is pretty high up and the nozzle barely reaches them.

The day after I sprayed, the larger array looked about 60-70% better, but you can still see the bottom portion has caked on dirt. After doing my cleaning, we are breaking the 50kwh mark now for 2 days straight, so my ballpark guess is that we are experiencing roughly a 5% loss in output from dirty panels ... When are panels were brand new, I actually saw instantaneous power readings of 10+ a few times, but for weeks they have not gone above 9. (BTW, is there a way to see max power on a daily basis on Locus?) So that would suggest to me that perfectly clean panels vs what we have now could be an even bigger loss of up to 15%.

I didn't think I would need to address this so early into our solar system's life, but apparently it's going to be this way as long as we get the morning dews dragging the dirt down to the 6" mark , and no real rain to really wash away the dirt on a regular basis.

Does anyone have any tools or suggestions for reaching panels that are higher up? We do have a power washer but I was hoping a simple garden hose and nozzle would do the trick. Maybe a power washer would be better at removing some of the stuff that's really stuck on there. We also purchased a 12' telescoping pole with microfiber cleaner and squeegee, but it's still not long enough to reach the smaller array without actually getting on the roof.

I can live with some power output loss, but to be honest the larger array looked pretty dirty and bad, and I just wanted to get the dirt off. I suppose we will have to get up there and really clean them just to satisfy our own curiosity to see how much loss is a result of the dirt.

Funny you should mention it. Since yesterday and today (I'm wagering) will be nearly identical solar irradiance except for 1/13 to 1/14 increase day/day, as an experiment I washed my array with water and a soft cloth on a 10 ft. extension pole about 0715 this A.M . I'll see if I can identify a difference after I compare array output and irradiance levels as recorded by my weather station for the 2 days. This is 1st wash since array assembly mid Oct. Early data today seems to show not much diff., but S.P. monitor crapped out after 0900 this A.M. which happens on a regular basis. Their monitoring is not real reliable IMO and a disappointment to me. Stay tuned - film at 11.

BTW, when you array was new, the sun was a lot "higher" in the sky your output will be greater then than now because of the lower angle that the sun makes with the line normal to the array during the day.

[bando]

Do not use the pressure washer - to easy to damage the seal on the panels.

thank you. glad to have asked before trying!

i wish the panels didn't have that "lip" on the bottom and the water and dirt could just run straight off without collecting and drying on the surface

[russ]

Do not use the pressure washer - to easy to damage the seal on the panels.

[bando]

We have had a pretty bad drought here in So Cal and our panels have been getting very dusty every day. To make matters worse, the night temps fall into the 40's while the day temps are in the 70's and 80's, meaning there is a significant amount of morning dew and condensation dripping down the panels, creating this 6" bleed line at the bottom that is basically CAKED-ON dirt.

I got a $8 brass nozzle jet for the hose and was able to spray down the panels as much as I could, but the smaller array is pretty high up and the nozzle barely reaches them.

The day after I sprayed, the larger array looked about 60-70% better, but you can still see the bottom portion has caked on dirt. After doing my cleaning, we are breaking the 50kwh mark now for 2 days straight, so my ballpark guess is that we are experiencing roughly a 5% loss in output from dirty panels ... When are panels were brand new, I actually saw instantaneous power readings of 10+ a few times, but for weeks they have not gone above 9. (BTW, is there a way to see max power on a daily basis on Locus?) So that would suggest to me that perfectly clean panels vs what we have now could be an even bigger loss of up to 15%.

I didn't think I would need to address this so early into our solar system's life, but apparently it's going to be this way as long as we get the morning dews dragging the dirt down to the 6" mark , and no real rain to really wash away the dirt on a regular basis.

Does anyone have any tools or suggestions for reaching panels that are higher up? We do have a power washer but I was hoping a simple garden hose and nozzle would do the trick. Maybe a power washer would be better at removing some of the stuff that's really stuck on there. We also purchased a 12' telescoping pole with microfiber cleaner and squeegee, but it's still not long enough to reach the smaller array without actually getting on the roof.

I can live with some power output loss, but to be honest the larger array looked pretty dirty and bad, and I just wanted to get the dirt off. I suppose we will have to get up there and really clean them just to satisfy our own curiosity to see how much loss is a result of the dirt.