Should You Clean Your Solar Panels? Before/After Testing! 

To skip to results jump to 6:40 😉 Check out my Tesla Solar/Powerwall Installation Playlist - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CzyAcluTUMU.html Thanks for watching guys!! 🙏🙏🙏

This panel can put out close to 100 watts ru-vid.comUgkxOqI2yqX0XVrhR2BMJciTWrHJpG8FhJyg when positioned in the appropriate southernly direction, tilted to the optimal angle for your latitude/date, and connected to a higher capacity device than a 500. The built in kickstand angle is a fixed at 50 degrees. Up to 20% more power can be output by selecting the actual date and latitude optimal angle.The 500 will only input 3.5A maximum at 18 volts for 63 watts. Some of the excess power from the panel can be fed into a USB battery bank, charged directly from the panel while also charging a 500. This will allow you to harvest as much as 63 + 15 = 78 watts.If this panel is used to charge a larger device, such as the power station, then its full output potential can be realized.

“Should you clean things that are dirty?”

I'm here to feed the algorithm again. Nice algorithm, good algorithm, you like this don't you? Who's a good algorithm? You are, aren't you? Yes, you are. Also, thanks for the info Paul, one day all of this will be very helpful for me. First step tho, buy a house.

My neighbors wake up at 7 and cut their grass, much rather live next to a loon who scrubs his roof at 5am with a brush instead.

Cleaning your solar panels is almost as important as improving RU-vid analytics.

Definitely do a follow up video. Actually do two; One in which you just rinse the panels, and one in which you completely scrub them. Thank you for your contribution to public service.

Probably worth giving them a scrub after major fires. Ash travels a fair way I think!

I've had solar for years, never cleaned the panels... They're pretty damned dirty. I think I'll clean them up and let you know.

As someone in Australia who wants to get solar panels, this info is really helpful. Thanks Paul!

Paul, if your roof has a roof mount (an anchor that roofers use that is attached to your house) you can attach to that and get a repelling harness and attach it to the mount. You won't have to worry about falling, you can go lower or higher by adjusting your rope, and you can clean everywhere. Hope this helps.

When you don't get nofication but still is early Cha Cha real smooth

Off grid solar for ~20 years here. Some thoughts: 1. Cleaning does improve performance (duh). 2. Despite the shorter days in fall-winter, I often get very good performance due to lower temperatures. My record setting days have been in late Feb-early March on cold clear days. I've seen my arrays producing around 115% of their rated output at times on cold/clear days in late winter. Cleaning can help keep your panels cooler. That said, I have spent much more time washing my truck than washing my PV panels. 3. Those who do the math on the cost of solar, based purely on economic concerns, are missing the greater picture. While I haven't paid a power bill in around 20 years, I also haven't purchased any NASTY GRID POWER during that period, and my power HAS NEVER GONE OUT during that period except when I have turned the system off for a couple of hours for maintenance and upgrades. During that (~20 year) period, my nearby friends and neighbors have seen their overall rates increase about 50%. 4. There are no easements or rights-of-way of any kind into my property (no need). If the power company comes on my property, they are trespassing. Just sayin'.....

Now ive caught the vid, and liked immediately. Im off to bed as soon as ive finished watching. Hope the numbers are improving 🍻

Whoa that's a lot more than I expected. 30-40% is impressive. I always want to see more about the solar panels. I enjoy the videos you make about them.

@3:09 Absolutely Great tip. Been watching a few videos on cleaning and no one has mentioned anything about the best/most ideal time to clean. Thank you! 👍🏽

Cleaning my panels every 2 months in the dry season resulted in an overall increase of 12% more power generated

yes, multi-step cleaning would be interesting, could you reach the lower panels from the ground/ladder?

Amazed to see that much difference. Thanks for posting this!

I want a future where every home is powered by solar. Major props to you Paul for taking on the cost yourself.

Your videos helped me get the courage to build my own PC a few years ago and maintain it since. It really sucks that the RU-vid algorithm has been punishing you recently. Hopefully this comment counts towards the viewer engagement bit. All the best from across the pond

Would love to see a full effort test of a thorough hose, followed by a full soap and scrub wash. Overdo it and see how large the differences are. Also a dollar breakdown per panel for the differences would be pretty boss.

I live at the Midwest and noticed 20% improvement as my area gets rain frequently. I clean mine from the ground with a car washing scrubber similar to yours. I did clean my twice as I noticed spots that appear to still be dirty after the 1st wash. This was my first cleaning in 4 years. Nice channel!

Thanks Paul have a wonderful sunny day.

Well, obviously yes. You know what happened to the mars rover opportunity? Still I am sure this will be a good video. Edit: Was indeed a good video.

Hi Paul We installed a 6k system just over 13 years ago and it became pretty clear that we needed to clean the array on a regular basis. However, our installation is on the roof of a 2 story home which makes it a real challenge to safely reach the panels. My solution was to array several metal pulsating lawn sprinklers above the panels, run pipe up to the roof, and automatically inject a cleaning solution into the water line whenever I turn on the cleaning system. It definitely increases output but I do think manually scrubbing would most likely increase output even more but not at the risk of hauling my ancient ass up a ladder with a brush and hose.

Thank you for the video!! I just got solar panels. With your charts explanation absolutely cleaning once every 2-3 months makes sense. 30-40% more production. WOW!!

Very informative video! Thank you!

When we had our last round of massive wild fires here in BC, we had to visit our solar hilltop repeater sites and scrub our panels.

Try using soap and they sell brushes that extends out to 11 meters, they are a little expensive but would make for another interesting video 😁

Paul, this is pretty awesome. Since your panels were not really even cleaned (evident from the second trip to the roof) I am simply amazed with those results. I am going to have to clean mine and see what I get for a result. I don't have Tesla panels but I should be able to see the improvement with my Enlighten APP just as you did. I might wait for the weather to get above 50 though.

Your eco tech videos are always really interesting. I like the cross over

Where is Lyle when you need him lol!

8:52 I had the same question a few years back. We have a ground installation, 2 systems, 2 meters, same panels, installed the same day and they pretty much produce the same amount of electricity every month. The variation between the two systems is at about 0.1%. At the beginning of a new monthly cycle I cleaned one system the same way you did and left the other one as is. Then I just let it run for one month and was very curious about the outcome. To my surprise the production was practically the same. Maybe there was a difference of 0.2%, I don't remember. But the effort and time consumption to clean the panels was not worth the result. To be honest, I'm glad there was no difference otherwise I might have been compelled to clean them regularly.

Keep up the good work! Love your videos

That is pretty neat, I just crossed the 1 year mark with my panels so I will try and get this done with before and after metrics.

Paul does Mythbusters!!! I would not have thought the difference would have been so large, either.

How about just comparing your solar production from when the panels were first installed, and clean, to how they performed 12 months later prior to cleaning.

Yes, please do this again it was a very interesting video!

JEEIIZUSSS!!!!!!!! thats a monstrous improvement!

That was a big difference! Make a permanent waternossel installation so you dont have to go up on the roof at all. Just flik a valve and your good 😉

I assume you clean your car with a "soap". use the same stuff when you clean your panels . Also get a roof ladder.

Watching this to support Paul!

Perfect timing. I have been thinking of cleaning mine!

To all the people that commented in the previous video of this series that cleaning is "insignificant" or "not worth it" what say you now? Very interesting video Paul, I enjoyed it a lot. My family is in So.Cal. too and dad never cleans his solar panels saying that it "can't be worth the hassle". Now I have some hard evidence to show him to the contrary. I would indeed like to see an additional follow-up about an actual brush cleaning of all panels. I wonder if waiting for summer again though would be more worthwhile. The logistics I will leave to you, the professional, though :D

My boss suggested using deionized water, he said it tends to pick up minerals from the surface.

Great video. I am off-grid and have noticed I am getting poorer conversions. I also hate roofs but I am definitely going to get up there and clean my panels.

Thanks Paul! Insightful video as I am busy installing a small Solar system in South Africa. We also do not get a lot of rain so I learnt a fair bit today!

Very interesting results. A window washing brush/squeegee combo may work a little better for this though. Also, if you can find a long enough telescoping pole you shouldn't have to get up on the roof.

Feasible to stand on the ladder and use the extension brush to scrub upwards to reach the panels?

Get an extension ladder that extends at least three feet beyond the eve at a minimum angle of 30 degrees with an accessory top-stabilizer bar. They are easy to handle by yourself and feel very secure when you are climbing. With this setup you can reach the lower part of the array with ease. These things are so handy, your neighbors will ask to borrow it.

Extremely useful information. Thank you for this.

"Even if I followed it up 6 months, to a year, 2 years" > Suggested video: HTPC Build Part 2

Do you have microinverters or are all panels just connected together? I would do this test with an installation with microinverters where you can monitor what every panel produces. Then just clean 1/2 of the panels and compare it that way. As sunlight is exactly the same the test is fair. I have an installation with microinverters, living in Belgium and here I have the impression that my panels are ca. 5-10 % less performing then when they were installed in 2015. As a reference I take the generated power of the best day of every year, and I reached my day record pretty much immediatly after placing them (some weeks after it), but never reached that record again . Maybe I'll get on my roof and will do the test of cleaning half of the panels and monitor what they produce in electricity. Until now I never cleaned them... Oh what is also important: if all panels are connected together, a dirty spot on 1 panel can drastically reduce total performance of your whole installation. With a microinverter installation also this variable is removed. So depending if you have a classical or a microinverter installation, cleaning the panels is more or less important.

I enjoy these solar posts

Definitely why I started a solar panel cleaning business here in SoCal! They definitely need to be cleaned if you want them running at maximum efficiency!

You have had them that long? Geez, where did the year go...

This is why I keep my panels on the ground and not the house, so much easier to clean.

Good job explaining. Thank you so much for the information. Husband did it but he did not extrapolate the findings. You did and that was good.

Thanks for the video Paul. thinking about panels, good to know the difference

I'm not sure I can trust a man that doesn't have a ladder 🤔

Lives in Southern California: complains about not getting sunny day🙄

Love the solar panel content

Yeah I'd love to see the follow-up on this with more control over cleaning, more info is always good for something like solar arrays.

Manual labor is a little different to building computers.

Google "long pole solar panel brush" - do

Yes a full cleaning!

I'm right across the hill from you in Brea and just got my panels in August. Time to hose them down. Will let you know how it goes!

don't use that brush on your car, it'll scratch up the paint.

Every millennial with self-diagnosed OCD is freaking out about the dusty bottom panels.

Depending on where I eventually move to I have been looking into solar and these really is interesting as hell as it shows there are benefits even if not immediate, but anything to make a better environment. So I cannot wait for the next followup

Great video!

Earlier this morning I cleaned mine (on my truck). I used a damp microfiber cloth. Now I know it served a point now than just because.

Good find sir. I enjoyed seeing this. (:

Interesting vid. Yes, Id like to see how they would perform if they were cleaned thoroughly

Thank you for sharing. I am going to clean mine off soon.

Yes Paul, do it again in the future. Also compare hosing them down vs really cleaning them using soap when you scrub them. .

I find this very interesting as I have 22 panels. It has made me organise to clean my panels.

Yes, more roof benchmarks!! Data will be very useful if/when I buy a place.

I live in a very dusty place in the dry season. I cleaned my panels after only one week and saw a 10% improvement. well worth cleaning if you want to get the most out of them.

Dont have solar currently but really do enjoy these vids of it

Great vid paul!

Surprisingly I find your home improvement videos more interesting than the usual computer hardware stuff

It is ALWAYS worth looking in to the manufacturer recommended cleaning equipment.

Awesome video. The salesman told me not to clean my panels. I've had them for a year now with very little rain and they look horrible. A few weeks ago I watered them down with a nozzle standing in my backyard. After they dried, from the ground they looked the same. After watching your video I now plan to try with a car brush. Thanks again.

Nice video! Keeping those panels clean is definitely a must. :-)

I've got 16 panels, 2 rows of 8 in portrait, fitted in May this year. My roof is steeper than usual, 50 degrees off horizontal/40 off vertical, and we get a fair amount of rain here in England so I'm hoping I won't need to clean them too often, I've not done it yet, but having seen your video I'm definitely not going to wait too long.

Ya I find this fascinating

Since the company I work for does loots of solar installation, I really looking forward for a follow-up video.

Cleaned today 2:00PM thanks for the video, didn't look dirty but got a 28% increase on the next 15 minute report. Clear day if anything it should have gone down a little bit from tree shade.

I would love to see a follow up! I'd also love to see one of those superhydrophobic ceramic coatings often used for cars, used on a few panels to see if that negates the need for scrubbing when just rinsing! Could be very interesting, and may help with avoiding death plunges

Paul, another reason why early morning is a good idea... the later you wait to clean, the warmer the shingles will be. Stepping on shingles in the afternoon can damage them as they are soft. Even on a cold day, shingles absorb LOTS of heat. You don't want to scar up a nice roof from frequent activity while washing your solar panels.

Yes I would like to see a complete scrub cleaning. A real test would be get 2 panels side by side and let one be dirty and the other clean. From what I understand the solar panel industry as a whole is very elusive about this. It would also be interesting to know the exact specification on how to clean these panels.

I've been thinking of making a DIY automatic solar panel cleaner. Basically run some hard lines up to the roof and find some kind of sprayer nozzles to periodically spray the panels. I know they have these for commercial facilities, so I think I can jury rig something together. Creating your own automatic solar panel cleaner would be an interesting video.

Yes. That would be helpful info. Nice Clean Panels vs. Sort of Clean.

My guess is the answer is yes! Keep up the good work Paul!

great video :)

By far, they are generating more when clean. Just a thought, the cleaning brush is rather narrow. I'm sure there are wider ones available up to maybe 2 to 3 feet wide plus, the pole used are also available in more extended versions. I'd also use a very light amount of dish washing soap to help free some of the dirt as soap lessens the surface tension of water. Maybe a 3 or 5 pound weight on the brush will help for the farthest panels. It appears they do clean up fairly well when brushed while the non brushed panels still had residue on them. If nothing else, they look better when clean !

Thanks for the reminder. Usually clean mine about every six months.

Great video Paul. So useful, as I have 40 of those suckers on my roof & they generate lots of power. Although in Melbourne, Australia we have has just come out of winter, so based on your findings, it sounds like it is a good time to have them cleaned. Being they are on a dobule story home, I will pay a professional to do it though!!!