@JaredAI Would you still use pure water or just rinse with tap?
Now you go and make it appear that window cleaning did not exist before water fed poles.
Our hard water would mess them up pretty bad. You could get by with RO water, but if it was my liability, I’d use RO + DI.
Don’t be silly. We’re talking about solar panels NOT window cleaning. Most people don’t even think about cleaning the panels especially in areas that get regular sky water (ie rain).
I talked with several big companies down here about offering the service and it became clear to me that there is no real performance benefit to regular cleaning on them. We get dust storms here and the majority of panels are covered in dust or bird poop. HOWEVER, we’ve got lab monkeys all over the city that have panels and they continually monitor their systems and from reports the dust and poop do not impact performance.
Oh, I’m aware that there was an industry paper a while back that said performance could be impacted by what was it, like 30% or something, but the experience here does not reflect that.
That’s why none of the panel companies require regular maintenance other than component parts.
I’ve cleaned solar panels on the off chance that a salesperson might be able to sell it. She had a little system on her house, we went up and cleaned it, and she didn’t notice any performance on her system.
What I do know is
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Panels are super hot and would suck to clean with mop and squeegee. It can be done but should be done early in the morning before the sun hits them. Once the sun hits them, it rises very quickly in temp and would be a lot harder in full sun. I’ve done atrium windows in full sun that were less hot than solar panels. Get a big squeegee and a big mop and move fast.
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The impact to performance does not appear in actual fact.
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The only benefit of cleaning them would be to remove the ugly bird poop from off a panel that can be seen from the ground. Panel systems below the parapet of flat roofs wouldn’t even bother.
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In the southwest you’ll need an aggressive brush like the boars hair to get the stuff off.
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There are solar “movements” moving around. They hit my core area Spring of this year. Their statistic claim that after two years of being in a town 60% of the homes have solar panels.
What I have seen: tons of yard signs. Monthly meetings to discuss solar panels. If the “movement” has been here 9 months I have not seen an increase in installations.
what is bigger out here is for a company to install and own the panels. Believe they get a tax credit and some other funds; the homeowner gets reduced energy I guess.
The homeowners who have paid themselves to have panels are more invested in to them.
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Solar panels here are on every other roof, I have been cleaning them way before wfp, even the solar install companies offer a cleaning service they recommend cleaning once per year they charge you between $99-$199 and they use tap water not pure water they don’t even use a WFP they use a normal broom with a hose and a bucket of soapy water, old skool way.
I love solar panels, when I tell my customers its only $3 per panel to clean while I’m here doing your windows its a easy up sell for an extra $30-60 for 10 mins more work.
And with my mini with the angle adapters I can clean many now from the ground 
What’s your tap tds there?
Ours ranges from 400 to 700.
120-140
I think the new local business model is the company owns the panels and the customer pays them something like $35 a month. It seems to be a pretty effective model vs. the customer forking out a lot of cash to own the panels. I see several company vehicles daily. I’m curious how the company handles the transaction when a home is sold, though.
Interesting. I don’t doubt there are people out there that insist it makes a difference and are willing to pay for it or they just like the look of cleaned panels once in a while. Charging them $50-$60 with the advantage of purified water over the solar company charging them more for a less effective clean seems like an easy up sell.
Interesting, I saw “supposed to,” in that video a lot.
Wasn’t there a lot of “supposed to” as WFP was being developed? 
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