ᐅ Should you regularly clean your solar panels yourself?

Definitely invest more money and go for something decent. On principle alone, buying Chinese modules is not an option, even if they are cheaper. I occasionally deal with China for our small business and experience poor quality every day.

Another important aspect to consider is having a way to disconnect—such as a fuse or breaker—between the roof-mounted panels and the system inside.

But since this is about cleaning, I read on one site and saw a test report indicating that a system (panel) with a nano-coating achieved up to 26% more output compared to an uncoated one.

@Moderation: Sorry for the link, I didn’t know it would be considered “unauthorized advertising” here. I run a forum myself with 7,500 members, but I’m not that strict. However, you have the right to set the rules. Apologies again.

Hello M&K

Honestly, I find it hard to believe the 26% figure. Efficiency improvements of 1-2% are already considered remarkable news. Maybe in a laboratory setting with significant investment, but not on real systems at a reasonable cost.

If you have a link to that information, feel free to send it to me via private message.

Best regards
Micha

Oh, how wonderful is percentage calculation. Everyone has a few percentage figures, and they can all be correct because each one is based on a different reference.

I assume that M&K referred to the efficiency of a dirty photovoltaic system compared to a clean photovoltaic system. Near a lignite open-pit mine, that might be accurate.

And Micha is probably referring to the overall efficiency.

Wikipedia states something around 13% efficiency. A 26% decrease would correspond to about a 3% difference in efficiency, which is not far from the 1-2% mentioned.

I would need to read it again, but I believe it was a comparison between a cleaned and then sealed system and a dirty system.

Hello

I didn’t expect anyone to compare a dirty system with a sealed one…

Here, you have two different factors (dirt, sealing), and it’s impossible to determine how much of the difference is due to cleaning and how much is due to sealing…

But I have yet to see a system where dirt alone causes a 20-26% loss in performance...
My experience (note: my personal experience, not a general rule) is that a dirty system typically produces about 5-6% less yield. And this applies to heavily soiled systems.

If the system is really very dirty, then cleaning is definitely worthwhile. And in that case, you can usually see the dirt clearly from a distance with the naked eye.
The “normal case” – a private rooftop system in the city – generally doesn’t need cleaning. Rain usually takes care of it reliably. The cost of cleaning usually won’t pay off financially, as the increase in yield won’t be significant.
Exceptions might be systems installed on dusty farm fields or near coal power plants...

The other topic is sealing. I do not know of any module manufacturers offering this. If it really resulted in a noticeable increase in energy yield (comparing new, clean modules with new, clean, sealed modules), many companies would offer it…
Again: an expensive gimmick, not economical.

A high-quality module is definitely better than any gimmicks.

But that’s something everyone has to decide for themselves

Regards
Micha

The sealant does not increase yield... that would be too good to be true. However, the sealant is meant to prevent dirt from sticking again... so it leads to consistently higher yield over time...