{"id":116,"date":"2013-09-24T20:39:49","date_gmt":"2013-09-24T20:39:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.solarpanelcleaningsystems.com\/blog\/?p=116"},"modified":"2013-09-26T17:25:06","modified_gmt":"2013-09-26T17:25:06","slug":"i-heard-solar-panels-dont-lose-that-much-power-when-dirty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarpanelcleaningsystems.com\/blog\/i-heard-solar-panels-dont-lose-that-much-power-when-dirty","title":{"rendered":"I heard solar panels don’t lose that much power when dirty?"},"content":{"rendered":"

As in real estate, the primary answer is location, location, location.\u00a0 Depending on several factors, such as buildup of pollutants, such as smokestacks, exhaust systems, jet aircraft exhaust, animal farms, wind, rain, dusty agricultural areas, areas adjacent to salt water, freeway exhaust, or dust, the amount of loss varies with every location. \u00a0Properties adjacent to cement plants, gravel plants, landscaping nurseries etc. are examples where your location is more likely to be affected by dirt and debris.\u00a0 Other factors such as mounting angle also contribute greatly to power loss.\u00a0 The flatter the mounting angle the greater the loss.<\/p>\n

Many articles written by solar panel manufacturers<\/a> or persons they hire to conduct studies, want to minimize the idea of power loss from dirt and debris.\u00a0 Think of it this way, if you sold solar panels, would you really want to highlight the fact that they lose power when they get dirty?\u00a0 Can you imagine leaving a car outside for 20 to 25 years; how clean do you think the windows would be?\u00a0 A solar panel is a simply a window with the \u201cmagic\u201d happening below 3mm. of glass.\u00a0 If the glass is dirty or covered with debris, the sunlight does not penetrate as well.<\/p>\n

Some articles I have read try to convince the reader that losses only run about 5-7%.\u00a0 That maybe in certain areas, but as a whole power loss in central California, the California desert areas, Arizona desert areas and areas along the southern U.S. where solar panels concentrate due to more sunlight per year, experience much greater loss; particularly if they are not cleaned.<\/p>\n

\"OLYMPUS<\/a>\u00a0 \"a4\"<\/a>\u00a0\"OLYMPUS<\/a><\/p>\n

We spoke with a major Southern California Power Company who had test panels at a site in Pomona.\u00a0 These panels were mounted dead flat.\u00a0 They had extensive monitoring equipment.\u00a0 They reported that at this site, they lost 38% of the electrical output in six months.\u00a0 What was really shocking was that they reported that half of the loss occurred in the first 30 days!<\/p>\n

Also note here that if you mount a framed panel dead flat, the aluminum frame is about 1\/8\u201d above the height of the glass.\u00a0 This acts as a bowl to keep water on the glass surface.\u00a0 So, when it does rain, any dirt and debris that may have been reduced by rain is simply rearranged on the surface.\u00a0 This can cause additional problems, such as \u201chot spotting\u201d which may damage or kill a panel.\u00a0 Reverse Polarity can also occur.<\/p>\n

\"P1020998\"<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 \"P1030176\"<\/a>\u00a0\"a2\"<\/a>\u00a0 \"P1000773-1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

While some of the pictures are indeed extreme examples showing loss approaching 50% on the first picture, can you really afford to throw away electricity?\u00a0 When you elected to purchase a solar power system you based your decision on how much it would cost to buy a watt of electricity.\u00a0 If you are not getting the output you paid to get, you really paid more per watt than you thought.<\/p>\n

Heliotex www.heliotex.com<\/a> can provide you with residential or commercial automatic cleaning system for pennies per watt.\u00a0 We can help you recover the electricity that you paid dollars per watt to buy.\u00a0 Contact us at info@heliotex.com<\/a> or call us at 760-837-0390 for any additional questions you may have.<\/p>\n

Gene Hunt<\/p>\n

Heliotex<\/p>\n

760-837-0390<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As in real estate, the primary answer is location, location, location.\u00a0 Depending on several factors, such as buildup of pollutants, such as smokestacks, exhaust systems, jet aircraft exhaust, animal farms, wind, rain, dusty agricultural areas, areas adjacent to salt water, freeway exhaust, or dust, the amount of loss varies with every location. \u00a0Properties adjacent to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarpanelcleaningsystems.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarpanelcleaningsystems.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarpanelcleaningsystems.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarpanelcleaningsystems.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarpanelcleaningsystems.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarpanelcleaningsystems.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarpanelcleaningsystems.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116\/revisions\/129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarpanelcleaningsystems.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarpanelcleaningsystems.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarpanelcleaningsystems.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}