How to Clean Your Solar Panels (Or Not) in Missouri

Your brand-new panels glitter in the sunlight, sucking in every sunray so that your house can run on clean, renewable electricity.

But won’t these pristine surfaces eventually dull with dirt and grime?  Won’t you end up slaving away on the roof, scrubbing those huge surfaces every few weeks or so?

NOPE!

Since solar panels are purposefully located to catch the most sunlight, they’re also automatically subjected to rain and snow. These two all-natural cleaning agents do a great job of rinsing off most dirt and dust. (Missouri’s an especially low-maintenance state since, unlike the giant solar states of the Southwest, we’re visited by rain and snow regularly.)

In the off-event of a drought or a flock of birds passing over (you can paint the rest of the picture…) you may desire to pop out and hose off your solar panels yourself – you usually won’t need to make a rooftop trip for this. If your panels are looking ESPECIALLY dirty and you wish to offer a little more TLC, just attach a soft rag or squeegee to the end of a pole and wipe off your panels from the ground.

If you do occasionally clean your panels, just keep these two things in mind:

1. Be safe!

If you do go up on the roof, watch your footing around the solar equipment – you don’t want to trip and fall. Avoid stepping directly on to the panels. If you see wiring loose or broken (unlikely but possible), call us to fix them – do not try to fix them yourself. And remember, roofs are steep and high up off of the ground so wear a harness.

2. Treat your solar panels like they’re made of glass – because they are.

Don’t use any strong detergents or hard surfaces to clean them – we don’t want these substances leaving a film residue on your panels (and thus affecting your energy production). Safest to just stick to water.

That’s it?

That’s it. 🙂

Solar panels are the most low-maintenance type of electricity system, since they contain no moving parts; yet another reason to go solar with Sun Solar!