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Keep Your Solar System Maintained Each Season

Ashleigh AngellOctober 16, 2018 2185 0

Keep Your Solar System Maintained Each Season

Luckily for you, solar panels are one of the easiest things to maintain. Aside from occasional buildup of debris and some occasional technical issues, solar panels generally don’t need a whole lot of care. However, that doesn’t mean they need absolutely no care, which is why in this blog, we’ll go over all the care that solar panel systems do require. Keep reading to learn how to care for your solar panels during each season, with detailed guidance focused on the different care required depending on which season you are currently dealing with.

General Solar Panel Care

Some solar panel care needs to be done all year, not just specific to certain seasons. One of these things is looking at the efficiency of your solar panels and making sure to not any dramatic drops, as those usually signify a maintenance issue. Typically, maintenance issues are caused by some sort of malfunction in your inverter and/or the wires that connect to it, as opposed to being a malfunction in the panels. Make sure to call out an inspector to take care of that right away.

You’ll also need to watch out for any new shady spots on your panels, and may need to trim back trees to ensure your panels continue producing at top efficiency. Shading can also cause your entire panel system to stop working.

You’ll also want to keep your panels clean from dust, snow, and any other debris that will decrease their efficiency.

Maintain Your Panels in the Summer

Summer is the most exciting time for solar panel users, as the efficiency is usually at its peak with a few cloudy days. The flip side to that there are few rainstorms coming by and cleaning off your panels for you. If you live somewhere with a lot of dust, pollen, birds, etc., you’ll need to give your panels a cleaning during this time. Luckily, it’s fairly simple, and you can probably get it clean with just some water from your garden hose. Warm, demineralized water is ideal and is the least likely to cause issues like corrosion and cracking.

If the dust buildup occurs more often than you want to deal with, you might also consider installing a sprinkler system on your roof that can clean it off regularly.

Autumn Means Falling Leaves

Fall is going to be a bit more frustrating than summer, as leaves could fall in huge masses on your panels and will need to be swept off as quickly as possible. As stated above, any amount of shading could cause panel malfunction. Luckily, it’ll be easy to remove the leaves with something like a leaf blower. Just make sure you keep yourself safe and hire a professional if you don’t think you can safely reach the top of your roof.

Winter Brings Snow and Hail

Perhaps the most annoying seasonal dilemma is snow. This will need to be removed even faster than leaves, as piles of snow can completely stop your panels from generating energy. While it’s likely to melt and fall off due to the angles panels are placed at, this process could take a couple days, and you obviously aren’t going to want to go a couple days without power. Because of this serious issue, we have a guide right here for how to remove snow from your panels. If full-blown ice builds up on your panels, you’ll need to inform a professional right away, because it’s extremely easy to damage your panels in a situation like this.

When it comes to hailstorms, there’s good news: solar panels are tested to withstand hail, and you shouldn’t have to worry about it at all. If something does happen, that’s where your warranty comes in: you should be able to get your panel replaced or repaired at no cost to you.

Spring is the Time for Preventative Care

During the spring, you’ll want to focus on preventative measures for the rest of the year. This is the time of year where you should do your annual inspection to make sure everything is running smoothly.

You’ll also have to deal with things like pollen and bird feces during this time, but it should be the easiest maintenance time of the year.

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