Do you clean your panels?

Lastonestanding

I have had my solar panels for around five years but I have never cleaned them.
I did have a low payment from the FIT last time, around half of what I would have hoped for.
I do have bird poo on the panels, as my TV aerial is above them, but this poo has been there for more than a years.
Window cleaner, DIY, how do you clean them?

silverwhistle

I don't but had a similar issue with a TV aerial which I removed as I don't have a TV. Normally rain and sun do the work for you, although in the short term there hasn't been much of the former!

Have you been comparing the FIT for the same period and season, as 'last time' is a bit vague.

QrizB

I agree with silvershistle; what exactly do you mean when you say:

Lastonestanding said:

I did have a low payment from the FIT last time, around half of what I would have hoped for.

Do you have records of your solar electricity generation, period by period, for at least a couple of years and ideally back to your installtion date? could you share them here?

It's possible that the recent drop is due to dirty panels, but it's equally possible that there's a fault somewhere in your system.

The_Green_Hornet

I have had my six panel system for coming up to 12 years and I have never had them cleaned once. So far this year generation has been consistently above average.

Lastonestanding

QrizB said:

Do you have records of your solar electricity generation, period by period, for at least a couple of years and ideally back to your installtion date? could you share them here?

It's possible that the recent drop is due to dirty panels, but it's equally possible that there's a fault somewhere in your system.

I cannot post a screen shot, I don't keep records.
The last quarterly generation numbers are - 50/50/120/90/40/90/120/90/90/35/40/90

March 2022 - £40.21
June 2022 - £36.76

Pile_o_stone

My panels are on the garage and woodshed roof, so quite easy to access to clean them. Normally  we get enough rain to keep them clean but over the recent hot spell I noticed that they were getting really dusty/dirty. I was just thinking of giving them a clean when the weather broke and a rain downfall did the job for me. To be honest, I was getting so much generation during the heatwave that I didn't know what to do with it all, so a bit of dust didn't make much difference. However, in Winter I always get out and scrape off any snow that falls on the panels. As  you'd imagine, it makes a huge difference with generation, especially  as the daylight gets reflected around by the snow and increases the output of the panels.

QrizB

Lastonestanding said:

QrizB said:

Do you have records of your solar electricity generation, period by period, for at least a couple of years and ideally back to your installtion date? could you share them here?

It's possible that the recent drop is due to dirty panels, but it's equally possible that there's a fault somewhere in your system.

I cannot post a screen shot, I don't keep records.
The last quarterly generation numbers are - 50/50/120/90/40/90/120/90/90/35/40/90
March 2022 - £40.21
June 2022 - £36.76

That doesn't sound right.

Take daily generation readings for a few days, then use this tool to produce a hindcast for your system. See how closely it matches. If you're more than 10% down, there's something wrong.

If you're a competent DIYer you can investigate it yourself but if you're not, and you don't have a friend with the skills, you might need to get someone in. Try a local solar PV installer (ideally one wih a personal recommendation).

Lastonestanding

QrizB said

That doesn't sound right.

Take daily generation readings for a few days, then use this tool to produce a hindcast for your system. See how closely it matches. If you're more than 10% down, there's something wrong.

I will have a look, aside from taking readings, I have never done anything with my panels.

Ectophile

I have had mine cleaned once.  I was looking into a local window cleaning company that also clears gutters.  And I spotted that the also clean solar panels.  So I got them to quote for the gutters and panels.

I watched the output of my panels.  As they were being cleaned, the output dropped.  But it then went up slightly higher than before.  So cleaning can make a small difference.

Lastonestanding

this is my generation history 

QrizB

Lastonestanding said:

this is my generation history 

Could you share the "past payments" screen for 2021 and 2020?

Are those bars meant to be quarterly? Some quarters are missing. And December 2021 seems to have a very tall bar for a winter quarter!