Cleaning Solar Panels With Hard Water

How to clean your solar panels.

Cleaning solar panels with hard water.

As a rule avoid using hard or mineral rich water. How to clean solar panels. Don t use abrasive brushes pads or powders. Grime and bird poop doesn t need to cover an entire panel to have an effect.

Avoid using water with high mineral content. Otherwise you can use distilled or de ionized water. It is not particularly complicated. Cleaning ones solar panels is not hard at all.

The grater the difference between the water and the solar panel the greater the chances of the glass cracking due to a sudden temperature change thermal shock. Hard water is water that has a high mineral content in contrast with soft water. Usually a good hosing off will do most of the job but you can also use a soft cloth or a soft bristled brush or broom and some warm soapy water or glass cleaning agent if they are particularly dirty. Google did a study on the need to clean solar panels.

They may look scary and technical but in fact the technology is securely sealed inside the solar panel. Solar panels are generally self cleaning but in particularly dry areas or where panel tilt is minimal dust and other substances such as bird droppings can build up over time and impact on the amount electricity generated by a module. Module manufacturers recommend the use of distilled or de ionized water to clean solar panels. This is where cleaning solar panels may have to be done.

The temperature of the water being used for cleaning should ideally be the same as the solar panel temperature at the time of cleaning. The most effective way to clean your solar panels is with a hose and a bucket of soapy water. If your area only has hard tap water you can buy an inexpensive water softening hose attachment to filter out minerals. In this article you will learn how to clean solar panels the right way.

Simply put if you can clean a window you can clean a solar panel. We ll get to the best way to clean your solar panels in a minute. But first let s look at when and why you might need to invest in solar panel cleaning equipment or hire a professional cleaning service. Fill a bucket or spray bottle with warm water and soap no other special equipment is needed.

They might have specific recommendations for cleaning. The first thing you want to do is to check with your solar panel manufacturer. Check with your solar installers and providers to determine if there is any information about solar panel cleaning recommendations and dos or don ts when it comes to cleaning your system. They found that tilted panels don t require cleaning as much as flat panels.

Use soft brushes and squeegees. If your panels are readily accessible you can clean them yourself. Mineral rich water may leave deposits of particles over time and its chemistry is not recommended for the glass of modules. Hard water is generally not harmful to one s health but can pose serious problems in industrial settings and when applied to solar panels.

Of primary concern for hard water spotting on solar panels is the combined levels of magnesium and calcium.