Solar Panel Mistakes! Cleaning And Cooling Output Tests! 

I think most people think solar panels are zero maintenance, but as you just demonstrated they are not. If you want their full potential. Good job! Andrew

Another good thing about roof mount, is it generally keeps a little of the sun's heat off the roof. But ya, lots of downsides too.

Hello, You are 100% right about cleaning and cooling. I clean my PV every 3 weeks. Here, in Thailand we have very high temperature (35 to 45°C). So, i installed a gardening sprinklers system on my PV combined with a programming watering tap. It costs almost nothing but gives 15% more production.

I have a cleaning business so I keep a squeegee out by my panel racks. Around 7 am before I go to work I run my squeegee right across them. In Florida we get a lot of dew in the am which is great because its pure water. No worries about hard water build up. Takes 5 minutes.

you are right I have installed the pannels on the ground in my garden. easy to clean them every two 3 months,..and installed at south ..Also better cooling in summer

I have 4 arrays of panels. 2 (18) panel arrays pointing south those were my first. Noticed very little to no output at 1st sunrise. Then experimented pointing a few panels to the southwest and i got more early morning output on those few than both my 18 panel arrays with solar world 240 watt panels. So I built a 15 panel array using renogy 320 watt panels. And I have 6 300 watt panels catching the sunset. Here in central Illinois, that seems to work well. Since I have fixed angle arrays I had to comprimise my horizontal angle at 40 degrees.

One main thing I was told when my UK solar array was installed was NEVER USE A BRUSH to clean them, just a hose. Reason? Dirt is particulates and brushing these can damage the surface causing microscopic scratches that scatter the light thus reducing the efficiency of the panels and this just gets worse over time.

I have my panels vertical, snow and dirt are not a problem. I cleaned then in sept but going to clean them soon when I add PV4 a 3.3 kw winter array.PV2 is a 2790w but has peaked at 3414w

Tech Ingredients here on YT did a big series on the benefits of cooling your solar panels....totally worth the watch

Good information Andrew. Thank you

We have 2400 watts of ground mount panels. I go out every morning if it’s not raining and broom them off and or wash them if needed. Being retired gives me plenty of time to maintain our arrays. The cool water can really increase the power but it’s short lived.

Great video. Thank you for sharing. 😊

I've got trees all around. I have to have them on the roof, to keep them from being shadowed. (capacity factor)

I love this setup...I live in Florida and have the room to do this

Hi, Andrew! Your demonstrations are always informative and interesting. Thanks as always. I just thought of who you remind me of: The Energizer Bunny!! You keep going and going and going…

Nice n informative. Some People don't have prior technical details and after completing the set up ,they couldn't do much.

I use distilled water with a tiny bit of dish soap in a 3 gallon sprayer and a squeegee (scrub side) to clean my small (6x200w) ground mounted array. Wipe off using the squeegee and soft towels (no scrubbing). Uses maybe 1 to 1.5 gallons each time.

Thanks for the information, I have been debating on cleaning my panels that are on my roof as they are dusty enough that I can see it from the ground. I will have to make sure to take some good readings before and after cleaning and see how it effects mine.

Another great video. Cleaning and cooling off are advantages for me on our north Texas property.

Good day to all and to you all in Florida, hold on to each other.

I have to clean mine also . I have found a foam blaster will work fairly well. I have a set of ground mounted & roof mounted also . For the roof one i use a Rv scrub brush . Hope to add another set of panels in the future for winter . Ill make a vid also when i do .

Hi Andrew cleaning the solar panels, good idea, I don’t think I would have thought of that myself. Enjoyed your video!! 👍👍❤️❤️🇨🇦

I knew it would make a difference, but that outcome surprised me. I have been sitting here after watching this and I honestly can't think of one thing that is maintenance free LOL!

Hope you guys got through the weather okay. Looked bad down towards the middle of the state but hopefully you dodged the worst of it.

This video is great, I do wash my panels twice a year and I do know he calling affect. My 14KW array (44 x 330W panels) on my roof is difficult to clean but its well worth the effort.

Love this channel. We are hoping to build our 40x80 or 50x80 shop here in Groveland. Aside from building bigger, do you have any lessons learned you care to pass on?

Hey, I'm always very happy when you make a video about solar systems. I'm thinking back to an answer you gave a long time ago, where you had just calculated how much electricity you pay per year. And when I asked if you didn't want to build a solar system, you said oh no, just not something like that, too much work and the electricity from the socket is very cheap. How times can change so much. Greetings from Berlin

Love your videos. Wish I had your acreage, and your smarts!

Very Interesting, great idea! 💡 👍 👌

Good video.

Hi looks like a great place u have....on the spray cooling if u ever do a test, i always wonder if spraying water on a hot panal might create stress cracking as the panals are rapidly cooled from being hot, but i guess its just like a hot panal getting a shower of rain, and the panals cope with that ok. Iv only got limited space so im going to mount my small 2kw array vertically and static on my south facing wall of my house, they will be out of the way plus still easy to clean. Iv heard people say vertically is good idea, as in summer they dont get as hot, and being cooler helps to generate similar power to panals being pointed directly at the sun, and its said helps them degrade more slowly too, and in winter they will be pointing at a great vertical angle to get any winter sun, with any luck...im in uk, so its not as ideal as your sunny weather.

Great video...hope the hail missed you...we've been getting a lot in the Dallas area lately and they are predicting storms with hail for most of next week.

Before cleaning, make sure the top surface does NOT have a so-called "anti-reflection" (AR) coating/treatment. If it does have AR, there is likely a very detailed way to clean it and that technique is likely described in the panel's owners manual.

Good info

I’m gonna agree with you 100% on the roof mounting. Yes it’s great for access but one you’re stuck to the angle of your roof pretty much or you just have this ridiculousness on top of your house and into a roof is a vulnerable place for a house anyway, if you start mounting step up there, that’s gonna catch debris and snow and put a bunch of holes in your house you’re just Creating failure points all over the place and like you’re saying the maintenance of the solar panels and in my opinion you’re just asking for problems. I think the perfect options would be like you do a standalone plus you can get the right angles to the sign, you’re not stuck to where your billing is already created and Their other options like building, a carport or some sort of structure with a roof with the solar panels or even an awning that sits off of your roof of your house is at the right angle. Especially if you’re going to have an electric vehicle, having a separate power system run completely off of solar panels in a protective carport would be an awesome option, but I think putting them on your house is just a huge hassle, if your solar panels have a problem or your house has a problem then you’ve got to do twice as much work to deal with all of it. It’s just kind of silly idea in my eyes.

what's your brush and soap setup? I noticed a diff on our panels during the pollen vs rain season. There is talk about "special" PV panel soap and brushes

Please be safe and careful

Unless you are using distilled water, misting the panel fronts would be a nightmare for limescale buildup.

Live alone on solar. I try to clean my panels when they’re cool. What have you noticed with the glass when gleaning or cooling your panels. Any damage because of a quick cool down when they’re hot. In Missouri my panels get HOT!

I’m getting too old to be on a roof. Can I find a video where you built your ground mounts. Thank You…

Love your videos, I wonder if you could take one panel and apply HydroSlick (its a ceramic / wax coating) put it on one and see what it does over a year. and or how easy it to clean

Hi, im looking to make something like the I have a question, what do you do with yhem during a hurricane? Thanks

in 1-2 days in my area my vehicles are COVERED by dust/debris. i cant imagine 1 month for solar on a 2 story roof. Loving my Vertical panels. Moreso with the Hail in my area. Covered by garage and the overhang. Setup a trough under the panels and recirc/filter the water and panels with a simple pump.

an A/B test ... To test if the cooling makes an improvement... instead of spraying on top spray on the backside. The water on the panel could act like little magnify glasses, per rain drop. I have no idea if that would make a difference. I know running them cooler does in fact increase performance. Also have you thought about bi-facial panels? Maybe on your next array get some... then do white crushed rock underneath to help reflect light.

Being new to the job, please answer this point. Do you do this cleaning after having shut down the panels? How do you proceed?

awnestly i would install a transfer switch between the house and the shop for that second set of panels! that way they can work for both! just an idea!

Do you think a product like rain-x would help protect your panels?

Good evening, neighbors

I never was a believer in solar on my roof for all the reasons you mention. If I don't have the space for panels on the ground, I won't ever get any.

Hey Andrew, do you cover or protect your panels when hail is forecasted?

Be more worried about hard water and leaving hose water to dry on the panels - creating calc spots which can be really hard to remove.

My panels have been hit with huge hail on several occasions, and the panels have never been damaged.

As I've got a bit of OCD, I would be out there cleaning them panels at least twice a week. Trouble is, I would spend all the savings I make on washing up liquid. 😂😂

I’m looking at putting in some solar and you mentioned something Ive wondered about, hail. Do you have to cover them? Maybe a good topic for a future video.

Is there a particular reason (especially with all your acreage) you didn’t want to go with the larger style residentual panels? I have found them to be much more cost effective per watt. Love your channel! Keep up the great content!

What are you washing them with. Dish soap or what? We've had blowing dust, so I'm not sure what was safe to put on them.

suggest do a 48v 300ah diy kit

Boy we did get a massive amount of rain the other day. Yesterday I was looking at my neighbors panels on their roof. The lower 1/3 is nothing but mildew. 😮

Is there a video of how your panels stow for hail damage prevention? I'd like to see that process.

do you have a video of how you built your array for those panels?

Hey Andrew, what if you put rainx on them after you clean them?

Nice one:)))

If you put white rock under your bifacial array there would be even more gains, great idea with the reflective panels behind them.

New subscriber here👍

Nice Tests, but next time just do your changes with one setup and leave the otherone just like before, so you have perfect comparision

What keeps the panels from cracking when the cold water hits the hot panels?

the cooling down also remove dust, you could do it from the backside if only cooling.

How About Covering The Panel With See Through Film To Prevent Corrosion From Elements ?

I hadn’t realized how dirty my panels have gotten. I live in Fort Worth and our yards are TINY so putting them on the ground isn’t possible plus HOA’s wouldn’t allow it. I’m cleaning my Tesla system this weekend. What did you use to clean yours?

But what you dont take in account is that the higher up they are is the cooler they are ,and a combination of the rain and wind give an excellent cleaning combination.

What kind of soap do you use? The company that installed my panels comes out once a year to clean them for free, but just for the first 5 years. I would like to clean them myself

I thought "I" was the only weirdo who goes out and cleans my panels!!..... Good to know I have others who like to clean theirs too! "I" have an issue though, I cannot clean mine in the heat of the day. I live in Arizona where, in the summer, it gets a hundred and teens degrees for MANY days in a row. This means that my panels can get to 150 to 160 degrees. If I were to go out and clean them at that time, I'd have SHATTERED panels. So it makes me even weirder in the fact that sometimes, it'll be like 10PM.... 11PM.... even at midnight out there cleaning my panels. The next day, everything has completely dried and I'm running higher wattage. My array is ALL ground mounted and mostly all totally flat. They perform GREAT in a flat position for me PLUS, I don't have the real-estate to have the panels mounted with the proper tilt because the tilt will cast shadows on the panels behind them. Like you, I built all my own power plant here NOT to live off grid but it lowers my electric bill like CRAZY! I'm also installed solar powered mini split AC units in my house that now, I no longer have to use the POWER HUNGRY home, built-in AC units. The solar powered mini splits run on solar throughout the day and then at night, they use a bit of my batteries. They work GREAT and will freeze us out of the house!! The AC units I have are called Airspool, 18,000 BTU's and man do they work GREAT! So while the mini splits are using solar panels, it gives my batteries a great opportunity to get to 100%. All my batteries are at 100% by like, 12 to 1PM and all my inverters kick off at that time unless they are needed again. It's a great time to be alive with all this technology!!!!

Lots of peoples say not to use soap in solar panels I didn’t know if you can

Try use spray soap foam for cleaning like on cars

This is how I would do It but we rent and solar companies are adamant they must go on the roof. Otherwise they refuse to sell to us.The landlord wouldn't mind them going on the ground we have an elevated garden bed that would be perfect for it.

We'll just put them on the roof to save space. Moreover! They are safe on the roof. Therefore roof is the way to go

Don’t wet them in the summer during the hottest part of the day. Fastest way to crack them

The thing about solar panels is that they quickly degrade in the first year, up to 3%, then they degrade very slowly every year after that, 0.25 to 0.7%. That degradation takes time to notice and will be moot from lifestyle changes as you either get more efficient gadgets or get more things that use power, or your batteries degrade in off grid. Cleaning is a significant way to improve panels if you are exporting to the grid or you have an off grid system operating on the margins. Cleaning is a good idea but just as routine maintenance because if you need that 10%, you really just need more solar :) If the system is on the roof you can just hit it with a hose occasionally if you don't get a lot of rain. Better than nothing and you can clean them more during house maintenance. I need to clean mine more because I have them under a power line so the birds keep pooping on them. Might do it this weekend.

In the commercial environment they like to clean the panels once a month for the big time solar guys around here..

That could have been a perfect excuse to play with the firefighting pump!

Howd yall fair with all the rain we just got??

Ive got half a dozen neighbors around here with panels on their roofs, they All are yellow and faded!! 😳

8:10 "shop off grid" as we stare at the utility meter in the background?

I rinse mine once a week wash them once a month.

I want to take my house off grid so bad

Misting to cool down the panels is not a good idea. You’ll create more bad than good which in turn get calcium deposits in a short of time and hard to remove unless you use chemical which may also cause harm than good. The best you can do is to have a lot of space behind the panels as much as possible for efficient and the highest power production. People mistake when installed on the roof they tend to like to keep the panels flush or close as possible to roof and preventing air flow to cool down the panels and reduce the power output by as much as 10-30%.

UNO

Too much cleaning can also damage them, the so called micro scratches, where if you use abrasive methods, you scratch the panels and lowers the efficiency..

Use your mobile fire truck to rinse your panels.

Nice batteries, but the absolute worst choice of inverters. High frequency inverters off far poorer surge capacities and shorter life expectancies than low frequency, transformer based inverters. Come back a year from now and let us know if your inverters are still working.

100 watt panels tells me you are a novice.