Before we dive in, it’s important to take a look at why you might even bother washing solar panels – and whether or not you need to.
Generally, residential solar energy panels are flat, tilted, and installed on your rooftop. Most of us never think about cleaning the panels unless we feel we’re not getting full output from them. Sometimes that’s because we think the rain will do the trick.
But there are reasons you might need to anyway. For one, if you have any trees anywhere around, you probably have bird droppings, leaves, and other things that have fallen onto the panels. Dirt and debris come from other sources as well.
Generally speaking, you don’t need to clean them very often, but you should a couple times each year. The cleaning removes the layer of debris, dirt, pollen, or other things that reduce the panel’s effectiveness. There’s not a significant impact on the energy lost – typically it will only equate $20 in the bill. However, when you don’t clean your panels, they may become damaged due to build up or unnoticed damage that worsens.
How Often Should They be Cleaned?
Solar panels typically don’t need to be cleaned more than once or twice a year. If you live in a severe weather zone, however, they will need to be checked and cleaned more frequently than low-wind regions.
What Happens if You Don’t Clean Solar Panels?
There are two specific things that may happen if you don’t clean your solar panels on a semi-frequent basis.
A drop in productivity of the panels – less energy output over time.
Minor damage may go unnoticed and compounded.
