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Should you wash your solar panels?

incoherency.co.uk

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Re: Should you wash your solar panels?

#151

Post by CrzyLngPwd »

jader201 wrote: post #96
CrzyLngPwd wrote: post #90

I clean my solar panels, 7kwh, every monmth or two. When I check on the VRM portal it makes a difference, and since I am so dependent on them all year round, I have no problem giving them some attention from time to time. Ten mins well spent.

> I clean my solar panels, 7kwh, every monmth or two. This honestly sounds like a non-trivial strike against installing solar panels, especially if they’re installed on tall roofs. I definitely wouldn’t want to have to clean them that often, or pay to have them cleaned that often. If you’re spending only 10 minutes on them, then maybe you don’t have that many, and they’re not up high.

Mine are not on a roof.

Re: Should you wash your solar panels?

#152

Post by mindslight »

QuercusMax wrote: post #134
WalterBright wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trump wrote in one of his books that a person selling their car that does not detail it beforehand is a fool.

Did he also say you should cover everything the tackiest gaudiest faux-gold crap everywhere? Anyone who takes business advice from Trump is a moron.

If there is one thing Grump does know, it's the value of fools.

Re: Should you wash your solar panels?

#153

Post by kurthr »

rcxdude wrote: post #28

Re: the slightly strange shape of the curve. The drop at the beginning could be due to the matching between the panels getting worse. Solar panels in a bank don't like being in different conditions. As a rule of thumb they will all perform at about the same level as the worst in the bank but at the finer levels you could get less straightforward interactions. The drop off after cleaning could well be because some of…

Yeah, came here to say this. There are a lot of things that will affect efficiency and how clean your panels are is only one of them. How dirty your panels get is also highly sensitive to both location and installation. All of this gets horribly confounded by string inverters (especially if they're clipping the peak, which they often are).

I easily see 5% increases in efficiency after cleaning (with micro inverters), but also see ~3% increase in output on a hot day from just spraying the panels with water to cool them off, which goes away in 15-20min.

If you're going to clean once a year, do it after the "last" rain of the year before summer peak solar output. If you live somewhere rural with summer thunderstorms, with high angle panels, and without a lot of pollen (or dust storms), you may not need to clean them much at all.

If you're going to climb on a roof, do it safely! A 10' fall can kill or maim you.

Re: Should you wash your solar panels?

#154

Post by deepsun »

tpoindex wrote: post #137
deepsun wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What the panels' technology / manufacturer?

SolarWorld, 175 watt, polycrystalline. I don't recall any model number (paper work is filed away somewhere.) ISTR mine were made in Germany. I think at the time my system was installed, there where some 225 watt panels available, but the 175 ones were a better price point per watt. [edit - added technology]

The SolarWorld company is no more :(

Which means your experience is irreplicable, other companies' solar panels may be crap.

Re: Should you wash your solar panels?

#155

Post by WalterBright »

SoftTalker wrote: post #146
WalterBright wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A real estate agent told me that a customer decides to buy/not buy a house as soon as they put their hand on the front door knob. If he decides to buy, he'll look at the rest of the house looking for a reason not to. I.e. putting in an expensive door knob is a good plan!

Certainly wasn't the case for any of the houses I've bought. All were compromises in various ways; none were houses we loved on first sight.

Have you ever driven by a prospective purchase and never bothered to get out of the car?

> All were compromises in various ways

That's true of just about everything.

Re: Should you wash your solar panels?

#156

Post by Theodores »

delusional wrote: post #36
wodenokoto wrote: post #6

> why would you clean them when you're about to sell the house? So they look good and the potential buyer sees something that looks to be in good condition and working well.

Exactly the same reason you should probably clean the rest of the house when you're selling it. Theoretically, the price of the house before cleaning should be equal to the value if the house after cleaning, minus whatever the cleaning costs. In reality, you'll get much less for your house without cleaning it, because human emotions.

People always want to make a place their own with renovations, which means a new bathroom, a new kitchen, a complete lick of paint and the list goes on.

They would prefer to throw out an old suite rather than something that has just been fitted to 'sell the house'. The excuse is provided for them to make it their own.

What they don't want is filth. A spotlessly clean house is preferable to one that has been hastily tarted up with a quick lick of paint. It is respect for the buyer.

Re: Should you wash your solar panels?

#157

Post by epiccoleman »

WalterBright wrote: post #117
austinl wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having recently bought a house, I love thinking about things that increase perceived value relative to cost (more so because they're nice to have, not because we plan to sell any time soon). A few things we changed right away: - new mailbox (replacing a rusted 30+ year old one) - lots of landscaping work (the majority of which I can do myself) - installed a wine fridge (I always felt it gave the sense that the kitche…

Trump wrote in one of his books that a person selling their car that does not detail it beforehand is a fool.

i find it extremely hard to imagine that Donald Trump would have ever been personally involved in the sale of a vehicle at the level that he'd be making decisions about whether or not it was detailed, but I guess it's sensible generic advice

Re: Should you wash your solar panels?

#158

Post by gwbas1c »

deepsun wrote: post #133
alberth wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OT: a friend of mine recently bought a house. They were surprised to learn at closing that the seller had financed their solar panels and that wasn’t apart of the home purchase. So they had to negotiate who was going to pay off the solar panel, and this all had to be completed before home sale.

I've heard it's pretty standard, their real estate agent should know that (and tell them about it on their first visit).

In the US, Real Estate Agent is a sink-or-swim job. There are a lot of barely competent real estate agents who go through the motions, but otherwise only superficially understand how to do the job.

For example, I run an HOA, and agents routinely forget, until the last minute, to come to me for the HOA's paperwork. The state even requires 10 days notice. I've switched to an attitude where I proactively reach out to the seller (not agent) early in the process.

Re: Should you wash your solar panels?

#159

Post by cyberpunk »

filmor wrote: post #131
cyberpunk wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except in germany where if you install too many you get classed as an energy company and have to pay extra tax. yay.

You don't get "classed as an energy company", you just have to pay taxes on the money you make from selling the energy. This starts at 30 kWp (up to that size, the income is tax free), which is very likely more than what you could put on a private home.

well I mean okay, but it happened to me, and i had to pay a lot to an accountant to do this paperwork and i resent it utterly. I guess it’s unpopular here to be dissatisfied with the insane bullshit tax system in this country.

I didn’t make a profit, it’s not commercial — but apparently getting to almost break even on my energy bills is a “profit”.

Re: Should you wash your solar panels?

#160

Post by tensor »

jader201 wrote: post #96
CrzyLngPwd wrote: post #90

I clean my solar panels, 7kwh, every monmth or two. When I check on the VRM portal it makes a difference, and since I am so dependent on them all year round, I have no problem giving them some attention from time to time. Ten mins well spent.

> I clean my solar panels, 7kwh, every monmth or two. This honestly sounds like a non-trivial strike against installing solar panels, especially if they’re installed on tall roofs. I definitely wouldn’t want to have to clean them that often, or pay to have them cleaned that often. If you’re spending only 10 minutes on them, then maybe you don’t have that many, and they’re not up high.

I never cleaned mine. Rain does enough. It's still plenty valuable without minmaxing them.
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