KickstarterForum.org

A quick story.
Three years ago, my wife and a friend, who owns a solar company, finally talked me into buying a system.
We were told the panels never need cleaning?

Our “true-up” last year was $75. This year it was $1,200!!!. Our electrical source is PG&E, the most corrupt and expensive municipality in the country. They own the PUC.

I had a study done )no charge) by the company we purchased from. They said there are two main factors causing the reduction in production.
Dirty panels and/or excessive shade from a neighbors oak tree. Well, the tree was there last year and the panels are very dirty.

I think it was a sales pitch, no cleaning, no mess, no fuss.

The pic shows the upper clean panels and the lower dirty panels. This was after a three inch rain a few days ago!!

He uses <20 ppm water filtered through a Reverse Osmosis system on his truck. $166 per visit. I signed up for twice a year cleaning. Hopefully it will be worth it.

Any thoughts?

I use a soft brush attached to a hose-end sprayer on an extension pole to clean my solar panels. Early morning or late evening works best so the panels are cool and the water doesn’t evaporate too fast.

I’ve been doing it this way for a couple years and haven’t noticed any scratching or damage. Bird droppings sometimes need a little extra attention, but otherwise it’s a pretty fast job.