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Should you wash your solar panels?

incoherency.co.uk

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Re: Should you wash your solar panels?

#171

Post by lotu »

WalterBright wrote: post #114
delichon wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We had a contractor doing repairs before we sold our house. Without being asked he took an orbital sander to the wooden hand railings along the stairs to the front door and said "people really notice this". A family came for the tour and before walking in the father put his hand on the rail, looked up at the house, and said "this place seems well maintained". Then they bought the house after a small pleasant (for us)…

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!

There's a reason the three most important things in real estate are "Location, location, location"

Re: Should you wash your solar panels?

#172

Post by Scoundreller »

ssl-3 wrote: post #136
dlubarov wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To add a few more: it's similarly easy to swap cabinet handles, vent covers, outlet wall plates. Fresh caulk is nice too, even if it's a bit sloppy, still beats stained or cracked caulk.

Those are things I've noticed when I've shopped for homes. Mostly, I notice that they look like efforts that were motivated by trying to get a high price, but are limited to being fast and cheap. So while I do note them, my perception of them is not generally positive at all. I'd rather the outlet covers be original and clean than the new, usually oversized covers (with a slight color mismatch) I often find. If I'm s…

It’s the faucets and sink fixtures that can jump out at me. I… question some of the Amazon-grade ODDALLCAPS fixtures’ ability to not spring a leak in the long term. Showerheads are more whatever.

Re: Should you wash your solar panels?

#173

Post by manmal »

sgt wrote: post #139
tpoindex wrote: post #125

I have a 19 year-old, roof mounted, 6.3 kW nominal system in two arrays (east/west facing), 40 deg. north. I've never washed the panels outside of rain and occasional hail storm "scrubbing". Replaced a failed inverter two years ago. My peak summer output is basically the same as when installed, making 36-38 kWh on a cloudless day. I'm actually impressed my panels haven't really degraded in performance over those 19 y…

That's really impressive and well built solar system, for it to last thta long. It shows how durable quality panels are. I have a 6 month old ~3.7kW system (6 panels in total), planning on installing another 6 very soon. My house is surrounded by trees so it's been a bit of a struggle in the winter.

Panels should do 30 years, easy. Inverters will usually fail after 15y, and with batteries it’s unknown what the current gen will do - 15y, maybe 20? Definitely get LFP.

Re: Should you wash your solar panels?

#174

Post by [deleted] »

amluto wrote: post #72
quickthrowman wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The system in question does not have a transformer so a grounding rod is not required as it is not a separately derived system. The equipment grounds should be tied together to prevent any difference in potential though.

There are many different ways to connect solar panels to the inverter. Usually the exposed metallic parts will be “grounded” (bonded to the ground / protective earth / equipment grounding conductor / whatever your jurisdiction calls it at the inverter). But this is an array that looks a bit remote from any structure, and even if the electronics themselves are utterly, perfectly safe, the bonding wire will cause the p…

[deleted]

Re: Should you wash your solar panels?

#175

Post by Scoundreller »

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…

People make the same claims about cleaning their air conditioner. Yeah it’s blowing cooler inside: you’ve just chilled the condenser and left some residual evaporative cooling.

Re: Should you wash your solar panels?

#176

Post by micromacrofoot »

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.

Actually in some places panels devalue a house because some people consider them an eyesore

Re: Should you wash your solar panels?

#177

Post by jawilson2 »

lotu wrote: post #171
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!

There's a reason the three most important things in real estate are "Location, location, location"

None of those are "door knob, door knob, door knob!"

Re: Should you wash your solar panels?

#178

Post by jawilson2 »

retired wrote: post #97
delusional wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I spend €125 on an interior decorator and another €500 in furniture and decorations after to make my condo more cozy. And then another €300 for professional photos and drone shots. The photos looked like those fancy interior magazines. I will never know if it is because of my effort and investment but I’m certain that it attracted a lot of attention. People really want a move-in ready home that looks like the magazin…

> €500 in furniture

I feel like this is 3/4 of a coffee table?

Re: Should you wash your solar panels?

#179

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

CapitalistCartr wrote: post #121
scarecrowbob wrote: post #119

Horses for courses. My system is off grid, so any extra power is just not used, and its designed in a way that a 2-5% change doesn't do anything. That might be a more meaningful change if I were selling power to other folks. Kind of off topic, but I see a lot of folks proximate to me have built systems to turn panels so they face the sun more closely. I can see the use in that if you don't have much space or if you h…

It does no longer pay to be clever with solar panels; they're too cheap. Angle not quite right? Add a couple extra. Summer vs. Winter? Add a couple extra.

> Summer vs winter, add a couple extra

My 6.7kW system produces 2.5 what we need in the summer, and 0.5 of what we need in the winter (even though its output here in New Mexico is relatively constant). Adding a couple extra is going to accomplish nothing in the face of a winter heating system (even with high efficiency heat pumps).

Re: Should you wash your solar panels?

#180

Post by rootusrootus »

pton_xd wrote: post #41
delusional wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> because human emotions. If I tour a house with pet urine stains all over the carpet, it's only logical to conclude that the owner is likely not maintaining the rest of the house to a very high standard.

OTOH, spotless carpets do not really tell you the opposite is true. Just means the realtor doesn't suck.
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