Cleaning panels

[Caesium]

Wash then rinse your car without drying it (better in the summer) and see what water marks you get with tap water.

It really is noticeable.

I routinely wash my car in the rain to avoid this, works a treat. And saves water! No rinsing.

Neighbours probably think I'm crazy

[smegal]

Wash then rinse your car without drying it (better in the summer) and see what water marks you get with tap water.

It really is noticeable.

I routinely wash my car in the rain to avoid this, works a treat. And saves water! No rinsing.

Neighbours probably think I'm crazy

It really does make sense. Saves drying the car.

[Oldgreybeard]

Only needs to be the final rinse. I just rinse the car off after cleaning it with a 5 litre sprayer filled up from the water butt. I usually add a tiny bit of that rinse aid stuff as well, as that makes the water just fall off as big droplets. If the car's already been rinsed off with the pressure washer and hard water then it barely takes more than two or three litres of rainwater from the butt to rinse it off.

[Tinbum]

I routinely wash my car in the rain to avoid this, works a treat. And saves water! No rinsing.

Neighbours probably think I'm crazy

I do as well and the house windows.

[Oliver90owner]

Here is a pic of part of one of his PV panels. Some areas are better and some worse than this. One whole panel is considerably worse than this pic.



As one can easily see, deionised water is most certainly not the requirement for cleaning these panels - you can keep it for your cars! I’v not washed mine in nearly four years.

How much reduction of generation would you think this level of lichen would cause?

[Mr Gus]

sadly thats the same scenario on a house near me.

[Oldgreybeard]

Can be very, very challenging to remove well-established lichen. There's a bungalow not far from us where the owner has been trying all sorts to clean his roof tiles. I know that he'd tried spraying various chemicals all over them, and noticed recently that the entire roof has now turned a sort of yellow colour. I think he's had someone in with an industrial pressure washer and that has taken the lichen off alright, but has also removed the coloured grit surface of the tiles along with it. Looks pretty awful now, I rather suspect he may have wished he'd left the roof alone.

I had a similar problem with lichen growing on sandstone paving. A professional pressure washer didn't get it all off, and it washed a lot of the pointing out. Only thing I've found that helps get lichen off is sodium hypochlorite solution. That works better than anything else I've tried, but I've no idea if it would be safe to use on panels. Perhaps try a test area first, so see if it reacts with the aluminium frame of the panels (it won't harm the glass). I used a pressure sprayer to apply sodium hypochlorite solution to our stone steps. That works well and is fairly controllable, although you need to wear clothes that you're OK with throwing away afterwards, as any over spray will bleach everything it touches (including hair).

In terms of harm to the environment, then dilute sodium hypochlorite solution isn't too bad, it breakdown very rapidly and doesn't leave any harmful stuff around.

[marshman]

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[Mr Gus]

i think you'd want a frying pan type "burnt on" fix for this, white vinegar & baking soda.

& after removal a light spray down with isoprop alcohol to kill off any remaining spores, make sure its wet (the panel & any remaining traces of algae / lichen, as this will extend the dwell time of the isoprop alcohol.


it does mean getting up close & personal sadly.

my recommended supplier see below, printer or electronics or medical grade are not much more, ..useful in times of covid!

https://trade-chem.co.uk/solutions/ipa-rubbing-alcohol/

[Joeboy]

For those with low level (bungalow) height PV installs, it is worth cleaning your panels at least once per year primarily to stop a grime foothold taking place on which lichen could then establish. The couple of percent gain in generation if lucky is purely a bonus.