If you’ve taken advantage of state and federal solar incentives and you’re using solar panels as a way to source energy for your home, you’ll be glad to hear that they are extremely low maintenance and will often get the job done perfectly fine without interference. However, that doesn’t mean they should be totally neglected – there are a few tips and tricks to ensuring your solar panels are working as efficiently as possible that you should follow.
From cleaning to efficiency checks, here is everything you need to know about solar panel maintenance:
Solar Panel Maintenance Tips
The first major tip for maintaining your solar panels is to ensure they run at peak efficiency. Since solar panels harness their energy from the sun, it’s best to keep them out of the shade so that they can absorb as much sunlight as possible. This may seem obvious, but plenty of homeowners use their solar panels inefficiently by accidentally placing them in blind spots.
It may also be a good idea to invest in a monitoring system for your home’s solar panels so that you can track how well they are producing energy. A good monitoring system will be able to give you daily readings of energy production and CO2 emission. Of course, your readings won’t be perfectly consistent due to changing weather conditions, but they will serve as a good sign as to whether your solar panels are functioning at full capacity.
Cleaning Your Solar Panels
If you’re in a particularly rainy area, there may be no need to clean your solar panels at all. Rainwater will often do the trick in keeping your solar panels debris-free so that they can absorb as much sunlight as possible.
However, if you only get intermittent rain or the occasional light shower, you will want to consider cleaning options for your solar panels. You can do this through the use of automated sprinklers, or you can clean them yourself.
Soap and water is all that’s needed to clean your solar panels in almost every case. There are also kits availabile that come with soap, wipers, and brushes that will allow you to make a mixture to wash your solar panels safely. You only need to wash them occasionally, and it should be pretty easy since dirt and debris tend to come off moist solar panels quickly. Make sure to practice proper safety precautions if you are up high, and don’t use any abrasive sponges to clean the solar panels. Reaching out to a solar panel installation company is often the best idea if you want to make sure your solar panels are working as efficiently as possible and don’t require any repairs.
So long as the solar panels on your home emit an efficient amount of daily energy and are cleaned regularly, you shouldn’t have any problems with them. Solar panels are designed to be low maintenance, so you only have to worry about keeping them clean and sunny for them to work well. However, if you run into any efficiency issues with a clean solar panel that is exposed to the sunlight, a professional will be able to advise you on what to do. Contact Future Energy Solar today to learn more about getting solar panels installed on your home.