How to Maintain Your Solar Panels for Optimal Performance?

Investing in solar panels is one of the best ways to save on hefty electricity bills and add value to your property. While most solar panels promise solar energy for the next 25-30 years, they can lose efficiency with time.

However, you can ensure your solar system offers optimum output throughout its lifespan by maintaining solar panels. But how do you maintain solar panels?

In this blog post, we will cover tips and advice on how you can maintain solar panels for optimum performance.

Do Your Solar Panels Need Maintenance?

Most solar panels in the market are durable and come with warranties, requiring minimal maintenance. Still, solar panels are installed outside and face extreme weather conditions such as storms, dust, heavy rainfall or snowfall. The constant exposure of your PV modules to such weather conditions can cause damage to the system or hinder their efficiency in the long run.

Therefore, solar panel maintenance is crucial if you want your system to deliver optimum performance and last longer. For instance, regularly cleaning your panels will allow easy absorption of sunlight, maintaining maximum efficiency.

Similarly, checking the panels gives you a heads-up of any damage or loose connection that requires immediate attention.

How Do You Maintain Solar Panels For Optimum Performance?

Although most solar panels require minimal maintenance, following some basic maintenance practices can help you run your system longer and deliver optimum performance. Here are some tips and advice for maintaining solar panels effectively.

1. Regular Cleaning

Regularly cleaning your solar panels is one of the simplest yet effective ways to maintain their efficiency. It helps to keep your solar panels free of dust, dirt or debris.

While cleaning the panels once every three months is considered ideal for solar panel maintenance, the duration can increase if you live in locations with heavy pollution or decrease if it receives more rainfall.

However, always clean your panels when it’s cool, around early morning or late afternoon. Otherwise, it can form cracks due to sudden temperature changes.

Cleaning methods: 

To clean your solar panels, you can follow the following methods.

• Mild Soap and Water 
  One of the best ways to do solar panel care is to clean them with a mixture of mild soap and water. You can use a sponge or soft brush for application and then rinse it off simply with water.
• Hose
  A hose can also work effectively against light dust and debris from your solar panels. But it may not clean the tough debris and dust stuck on the panels.
• Automated cleaning system 
  Nowadays, you can easily find automated cleaning systems such as drones or robots for cleaning your solar panels. It has made maintaining solar panels easier as you can program these systems to automatically clean the panels, saving you time and energy from manual cleaning.

2. Avoid Shading 

Regularly monitoring your solar panels for shading from nearby buildings or trees is crucial for their efficiency. So, it is better to consult about future shading possibilities with professionals during installation for appropriate angle and positioning. And if you have trees near your solar anele, make sure you trim it timely to avoid any possible shading.

3. Annual Inspection 

Conducting an annual inspection of your solar panels and other components is an effective way of maintaining solar panels. During inspections, you should look for:>

• Damage, such as chips or cracks on the panels.
• The mounting system is secure and free from corrosion or damage.
• Loose or faulty Wiring can cause issues to the entire system.
• Electric Components such as fuses or switches work effectively.
• By this annual inspection, you can identify any such issues or damages to the systems and book professionals to avoid further problems.

4. Scheduling Professional Maintenance

Although you can inspect yourself for regular cleaning and maintenance, you should schedule professional solar maintenance services once a year. Solar professionals have the tools and expertise to inspect and identify hidden concerns that have gone unnoticed initially. Moreover, they will recommend repairs and replacements if needed.

5. Installing Monitoring Systems 

Modern solar panels come with monitoring systems that enable you to get updates on your solar systems’ efficiency and production. Using these monitoring systems, you can easily set up alerts that inform you whenever system performance drops. So, you can check the panels or inverter for the issues and get professional help accordingly.

6. Troubleshooting Any Solar Panel Issues 

Apart from the above maintenance tips, you must know about some solar panel issues to prevent further problems. Let’s, look at some of the main issues your system can face:>

• Reduced Battery Life 
  Generally, Solar battery life and performance reduce over time due to numerous factors such as improper charging and temperature fluctuations. So if you notice sudden reductions, you better check your battery’s charging capacity, fluid level or voltage and consult with professionals when necessary.
• Drop in solar panel performance. 
  If your solar system performance drops, it can be due to issues with the panels. So, you better check your solar panels for the possibility of defective cells or micro-cracks and address the issues promptly.This way, you can avoid further problems or deterioration of the system if there is a need for solar panel repair or replacements.
• Inverter issues  
  Solar inverters are a crucial part of your solar systems, enabling you to convert DC energy generated by PV modules into AC energy used by appliances. So, if you notice any issues like fluctuations or lack of power output, it can be due to inverter problems.Therefore, for maintaining solar panels, keep an eye on your inverter and address issues quickly to maintain solar efficiency.

Conclusion 

Maintaining solar panels is one of the effective ways to maintain its efficiency and ensure the durability of the system. We hope the tips mentioned above will help you enjoy solar energy effectively. If you have any queries regarding solar panel maintenance, contact our team for more details.