cleaning solar panels

Kryten

Member
Location
South Derbyshire
Got a 40kwh roof mounted system, three years old now performing better than expected. The panels don't look too dirty but my question is has anyone out there cleaned their panels yet and has it made any difference? Normally if I embark on a project like this I start one job and create three more so I wonder if I should just leave well alone :O)
 

Ritchie

Member
Location
Ysbyty Ifan
What do you mean, god's been peeing on ours and they still look dirty, get about 120" of it here, i'll be up on the roof cleaning them when i get a chance.

Ritchie
 

Ritchie

Member
Location
Ysbyty Ifan
Got all that, how much do they charge ??
Per panel.
Per hour.
Per day.
With window cleanung you need to be about the £40 per hour with this kit or you might as well stay at home.

Ritchie
 
Its down to roof size IMHO. they were all good size so they didn't spend long faffing about moving pipes etc. will remind him of this next time they come out!
 

Ritchie

Member
Location
Ysbyty Ifan
ascontent_b_lhr.xx.fbcdn.net_hphotos_xfp1_v_t1.0_9_p526x296_1015c4e314e4b13e0ded0bb5b755876c18.jpg


Got them done this afternoon


Ritchie
 

Exfarmer

Member
Location
Bury St Edmunds
I think it would be wise doing them later in the spring so you have nice clean panels going into the high production months.
I am just waiting for a demonstration of the Karcher twin spinning brush system. Will post my views on it when it arrives.
 

Ritchie

Member
Location
Ysbyty Ifan
They had not been done since they were erected early summer 2013 some bird poop and grime on them even though we get plenty of rain ( 120" annualy ) i thought that they would have been cleaner. So when it comes to our drier weather around end of April i'll do them again.
Oh, and for the wiseguys who'll say we should have gone for a Hydro, here it is:

http://www.greenearthhydro.co.uk/downloads/Case Study Ysbyty Ifan (75kW) V2.pdf

Ritchie
 

Exfarmer

Member
Location
Bury St Edmunds
The balance is the increase in output compared to the cost.
with some contractors quoting a £1 per panel it is questionable whether this will be repaid.
I am certain angle of roof, as google found, plays a large part
My own house panels are performing at a similar rate to when they were installed 4 years ago, but they are at 50 something degrees.
The huge performance difference day to day and even year to year makes any meaningful before and after comparison, difficult.
 

Solar Steve

Member
Location
Telford
Hi Exfarmer. Your concerns are valid regarding the cost/benefit ratio. Our prices have been structured to be value for money for our clients. There is little point spending £100.00 having the panels cleaned for an extra £80.00 in added output.

The angle of your house panels will be much different to your farm roof. The farm roof panels will without doubt benefit from at least an annual clean. We clean some farms 3 or 4 times a year because they have worked out the cost/benefit ratio and still see this cleaning schedule to be worthwhile.

Agricultural-based arrays get the dirtiest and will need cleaning frequently.
If you have your panels monitored, please contact us and we can talk you through how you will be able to accurately measure the difference that cleaning will bring.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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  • 50-75%

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  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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