Solar panel cleaning is mostly about saving money. As a solar panel homeowner, you have probably already watched some videos or visited some websites talking about solar panel cleaning? And now it’s weighing on you, is it worth it? In this post we’ll discuss three ways to determine if your panels need to be cleaned.
1. Look at Them
A visual inspection is super easy and can be quite accurate in determining your need for solar panel cleaning. Foremost, look for algae. Algae usually starts to bloom on one-story houses close to big trees at around year 4. There are a lot of solar panels and solar panel cleaners on the West Coast, but they don’t treat algae blooms- it’s a Florida problem. It’s quite opaque and thus blocks out sun unfortunately well. If you want to get your panels cleaned as infrequently as possible, once you see algae, it likely makes economic sense to clean your panels at our killer rate. Secondly, if there is a thick layer of pollen laying on your panels then it could make sense for you to get your panels cleaned. Check to see if there are any tree branches shading your panels, what about leaves and sticks laying on top? Just get an idea of how dirty they look. If you cleaned your panels would it make a significant difference in 1 week of solar power, now multiply that by 52 for a year worth of solar benefit!
2. Time: Every 4 Years for One-Story Houses and Every 5 for Two-Story Houses
You can also just forgo the visual inspection and opt to clean your panels every couple years. In general, the closer your panels are to the ground, the more often they need to get cleaned. If you have a lot of big trees in your yard you’ll need cleaning more frequently too . We recommend every 4 years for one-story houses next to trees and every 5 years for two-story houses.
4.5%+ Dirty
If you look at “The Math” page on our website and really like numbers you’ll see that because More Power 2 You Solar Cleaning can offer great rates it makes sense to get your panels cleaned once dirt has made your panels 4.5% less efficient. As soon as your panels are that dirty it makes sense to get your panels cleaned. Watch your solar panel system app or computer and see how much it’s dropped off. The sooner you get your panels cleaned the sooner you can get back to optimally clean energy uptake. Again we usually see it makes sense to get your panels cleaned around year 4.
We hope this is a helpful guide to see if solar panel cleaning is right for you.
From the Team at More Power 2 You,
Sunny Savings!
Sam G.