How to Protect Your Solar Panel Installation

A solar panel installation is going to a fairly big investment. This means that getting a solar panel installation can be a little scary for some homeowners because the solar power system is installed outdoors, exposing it to weather ailments.

There are ways that a homeowner can protect their solar panel installation. By taking preventative methods you can ensure that your solar panel installation is going to stay intact and continuing producing solar power.

Protect Your Solar Power System From Pests

If you look around at rooftops you will probably notice that often birds will land on them. It seems that the solar panels are only making it more appealing for squirrels, mice, and birds. These creatures are not only unwelcome guests, but they can also cause damage to the solar panel installation. They can cause damage to the solar power system by gnawing the wires, building nests, and leaving droppings, all of which will hinder the solar power production.

There is good news, preventing the pests from nesting in your solar panels is going to be fairly easy. You can prevent the pests from nesting and ruining your solar power system bu thoroughly cleaning the under the solar panel installation to remove the pests, repairing any damages that may exist, and installing pest guards to keep the vermin out. The pest guards are always a good idea after cleaning the solar panel installation because if the animals are nested under the solar panel installation once, chances are they are going to do it again.

Protect your Solar Panels From Falling Debris

Regardless of where you live, there is going to be falling debris, such as twigs, leaves, and dirt may cause micro-scratches on your solar panels, which may affect the solar panels. When your solar panels are scratched, the solar panel efficiency can drastically decrease, because the scratches decrease the amount of solar energy that each solar panel can absorb, due to the scratches preventing the sunlight from hitting the solar cells. The heavier the debris such as full branches or acorns may completely break the solar panels.

The most logical solution to make sure that there aren’t any trees that are going to be directly above or near the trees. However, if you are adding a solar panel installation to an existing rooftop, you may already have trees surrounding your home, and you probably aren’t going to want to remove them because of all of the benefits. If you maintain your trees by trimming them, you won’t have to choose between your trees and solar panels.

If you allow the debris to build up, solar panel efficiency significantly decreases, but you can easily avoid this. If you want to get rid of the debris that is building up on your solar power system you should clean the solar panels regularly. You can clean them using a microfiber cloth and your garden hose. You won’t have to do it very often, once a season should be enough.

Add Your Solar Panels to Your Insurance Policy

Homeowners need to learn how to protect their solar panel installation from hail and other weather conditions. First, you are going to want to inform your insurance provider.

The company will take a look at your premiums to cover the extra risk. In the case of theft, or damages, you aren’t going to suffer a financial loss.

Most of today’s solar panel companies are going to perform a hail test on their solar panels. The solar panels can withstand 50 mph winds accompanied by quarter-sized hail. But, the larger hail and winds may cause damage, which is where the solar power system insurance comes into play.

Clean Your Solar Panels

As we have previously discussed, if you want to make sure that the debris isn’t going to affect your solar panel efficiency, you should clean your solar panel installation. If you are going to decide that you need to clean your solar panel installation, there are two main ways that you can go about doing so, you can either hire a professional to do it, or you can clean the solar panels yourself. A lot of solar companies are going to offer cleaning solar power system services, and most solar companies are going to suggest you get the solar panels cleaned every so often when they first come install the solar panels. When it comes down to it, what you get back cost-wise in your energy bill, it will not surpass the amount that you will need to fork out to the solar companies to perform the work. Most of the solar companies are going to charge quite a bit to clean the solar panels.

But, you are perfectly able to clean the solar panels yourself, and you will most likely have everything you need to clean the solar panel installation at home. In most cases, all you are going to need is a hose, and maybe a little bit of soap, then you will be good to go. This could be helpful in the drought-prone areas, because if you are doing what would normally be done by the rain.

There will be certain ways that you can determine if your solar panels need to be cleaned. One is going to be a physical inspection of the solar panels for any debris, dirt, animal droppings, etc. The other is going to be using a solar power monitoring system that will alert you if the performance of your solar panels drops. This is going to alert you if any maintenance needs for your solar power system, regardless if its a mechanical, electrical, or cleanliness need.