Solar Panel Maintenance: A Quick Guide to Taking Care of Your Solar Panels

Solar panel maintenance is a vital yet often-ignored task when caring for your solar panels. Proper care can help give you value for money, which means you have to spend less on replacement. Care for solar panels is relatively straightforward, with little you need to know. 

For example, you don’t need to know the complicated steps of individually removing and cleaning solar panels. You do need to know the basics: how to clean them and how often you should do it.

Cleaning your solar panels is essential for keeping them in good condition. With regular cleaning, you can get rid of dirt, accumulated moisture, and dust. Dirt like this could clog the pores of your solar panel’s surface and lead to poor performance.

The best way to clean dirt on your panel is to use either a hose or a garden hose with a spray nozzle attached. This is simple and quick; merely point the nozzle at the panel’s surface and spray the water at it. 

Solar panel maintenance experts recommend cleaning your solar panels at least once a year, if not twice.

It would be best to use a hose to clean the solar panels. It helps you see if there are any spots or stains that need cleaning. Once you find these spots, you can use an electrostatic cloth or a vacuum cleaner to clean the solar panels correctly.

The solutions below are only a few additional suggestions for routine maintenance that should be performed periodically by any homeowner with solar panels.

• Check periodically for missing or broken seals and replace them promptly with the original manufacturer seal.
• Use a few drops of glass cleaner or an anti-static cloth to clean the glass on your solar panels for best performance.
• Check the bearings and any other moving parts for damage. Proper lubricant can help prevent damage from friction, but metal-to-metal contact can cause severe damage over time.
• Check the mounting hardware for corrosion and replace it as necessary. Corrosion prevention is critical in high salt areas such as coastal cities or states with heavy snowfall, like Colorado, Massachusetts, and Washington (state).
• Finally, check the receiver box for any loose or damaged wiring and replace it if necessary. Wires can get dirty and rusty from the weather, causing them to rust over time resulting in shorts and dead spots.
• Follow the manufacturer’s recommended starting voltage of your solar panels, typically higher than what you may be used to. The voltage will determine how much energy your panel will produce. A lower starting voltage can result in a lower production yield overall.

Solar panel maintenance is an effortless task that you can do yourself. The only tricky part is finding out what you need to do and how often you should do it. I recommend following the manufacturer’s maintenance recommendations available with your solar panels. These recommendations will give you an idea of how often and what maintenance you should do for your solar panels.