Day: August 26, 2021

How to maintain Solar Panels?

Posted on by solarman

Solar panels are incredibly reliable. Thus Solar Panels maintenance need on regular basis. Most systems have no moving parts, and the lifespan for a solar panel can exceed thirty years. This means that solar panel installation companies routinely offer very long warranties and maintenance packages as part of your system cost. Despite this, some preventative maintenance is necessary to go a long way towards the longevity and efficiency of your system, and it’s good to know what to do if there is a problem with any of your panels. Follow these tips for decades of clean electricity and save on your energy bill.

Solar panel warranties

Solar panel manufacturers provide a range of warranties that guarantee you will have support and coverage in the unlikely event of an issue, such as hail or falling tree branches. Solar panel warranties are transferable to new homeowners should you sell your home. Power output warranties guarantee that panel performance won’t fall below a specified level over the term of the warranty (usually 25 years). As an example, a manufacturer might provide a warranty to guarantee that peak power output won’t fall below 85 percent for 25 years.

Some manufacturers will also include an additional warranty that promises a higher output level over a shorter period of time. As an example, a secondary warranty might guarantee no less than 90 percent of initial power output for the first 10 years.

Solar Panels typically come with a workmanship warranty that protects consumers against defective panel parts, generally for the first five years of operation. Inverters also come with warranties, usually for 10 years.

Your solar panels Maintenance

Solar panels are made of tempered glass, so they’re built to withstand hail and other rough weather. With the exception of tracking mounts, solar panel systems don’t have a movable part, which cuts down on the possibility of any problems.

Any issues with solar panel performance are usually related to electricity production, which is why most installers recommend monitoring your system’s production. By paying attention to changes in production, you can identify and address issues proactively.

Generally, solar panels don’t need to be cleaned. They are very durable and should last around 25-30 years with no maintenance. If you live somewhere where there is a lot of smog, dust, or dirt, you may see a dip in your production over time that can be remedied by cleaning your panels. If your panels are mounted on your roof, however, your best option is to hire a professional cleaning service rather than try to clean them yourself. Your installer will be able to recommend someone local to help you.

Caring for Your Solar Panels in All Seasons

Solar panels require very little regular maintenance. Generally, any failures that do occur are related to electricity production or corrosion in the wires that tie your system to the inverter, rather than with the panels themselves.

Remember, though, that solar panels produce electricity only if the sun is shining directly on them. Any obstructions from dust, snow, or vegetation will cut into your production—or halt electricity generation altogether. If you live in an especially dusty area or an area that experiences regular snowfall, keeping your panels clean and unobstructed will result in more power generation.

Regular Rinses for Dust and Pollen

Summer should be a very productive season for your solar array. However, your panels may become clouded by dust, grime or tree pollen from time to time. A rainstorm is usually enough to clean off a solar panel, but in arid climates, summer storms are few and far between.

If you live in an especially dusty area, and you aren’t expecting any rain, you can rinse the dust off with a garden hose. This method is ideal if you can safely reach your panels from the ground without a ladder. Be sure the water you’re using to clean your solar panels is demineralized; hard water can cause scaling or corrosion over time.

For homes where dirt or pollen buildup becomes a recurring issue, installing a roof-mounted sprinkler system is an option to take the headache out of regular cleaning. Make sure your sprinkler system is installed under the supervision and approval of your solar installer, so the sprinklers won’t negatively impact your roof or your panels.

Snow and Ice Removal

For areas with high chances of snowfall, regular snow removal may be difficult. Most of the time, snow on your roof will melt off over a day or two from the heat of the sun and the heat produced by your home—though the panels will need at least a fifteen-degree tilt for this to work well. In the event that it’s too cold for the snow to melt off, a snow rake can help you clear drifts. Again, check your warranty to ensure it won’t be voided by the use of cleaning tools.

Ice buildup is another concern, as it may weaken your roof and threaten the integrity of your solar panels. Removing ice from your roof may be necessary in some cases to prevent eventual water penetration, pooling, or even structural damage. However, the use of salt as snowmelt may cause corrosion on your rack or the panels themselves, making ice removal a challenge. Situations like these warrant consulting a professional maintenance service recommended by your solar installer to prevent any long-term damage or issues.

Besides ice buildup, you shouldn’t have to worry about the integrity of your solar panels in most weather conditions. Even serious weather conditions like hailstorms are within the strength tests of the tempered glass used on solar panels. However, in the event one of your panels becomes cracked, contact your solar installer immediately for repair or replacement of the broken panel.

Electrical Component Care in All Seasons

The wiring that ties your solar panels to your home should last for the life of your system. The best way to avoid any electrical issues is to go with an experienced and certified installer. Expert installers know where systems commonly fail and will avoid poor wiring that could result in water exposure or other issues that might halt your production.

Many modern systems also come with real-time system monitoring, so you should be alerted to any electrical issues fairly quickly. These monitoring systems usually output data to the web or an app on your Smartphone. You can check the production totals of each individual panel. This is useful for quickly spotting any “dead” panels that aren’t producing electricity, either due to a problem with the panel itself or—more likely—the connection between the panel and the inverter. Any time you notice an unexpected loss in electricity production, you should contact your solar installer to come to do an inspection of the wiring.

Electrical Component Care in All Seasons

Preventative maintenance can go a long way towards the life of your solar system. Have your installer conduct a regular inspection of your installation to diagnose and address any issues.

  • Water damage at any roof penetrations
  • Roof drainage issues
  • loose leaves or Vegetation growth in the roof
  • Proper expansion joints, supports, and bushings in long conduit runs
  • Corrosion on electrical enclosures or the rack system
  • Loose or exposed wiring, or wiring that contacts the roof surface
  • Signs of animal infestation
  • Excessive cracking or wear on the inverter
  • Burn marks, discoloration, or broken glass on solar panels
  • Missing bolts
  • Corrosion or erosion of system supports

Depending on your system, your solar installer may also choose to conduct isolation tests to determine if there is any damage to the wiring insulation or any resistance from loose or broken connections. If you notice a drop in your production, or if your system monitoring has revealed a dead panel, these tests can be conducted to isolate the problem for maintenance.

Electrical Component Care in All Seasons

Most solar systems are tied to the electrical grid, making any maintenance potentially hazardous. Never attempt to repair any component of your solar system yourself. Any solar maintenance should be conducted by trained technicians. Clean Energy Council recommends all accredited installers to advise the owner of a system if it does not comply with the current standards. This could be as a result of weathering, damage, or upgrading of the standards themselves. This requirement highlights the danger in working with electrical systems and the importance of hiring an installer with the certifications to conduct maintenance down the road.

You need to consider your own personal safety when cleaning your solar panels. Almost all reputable installers will be happy to put you in touch with a cleaning service that can do the job professionally.

With proper maintenance at set intervals, frequent visual inspections, and regular cleaning of your panels, you should experience relatively problem-free ownership for decades. Be sure to look at the track record of your solar installer to ensure they’ll take care of your solar system for the extent of its productive life. Well-established solar companies with experience, certifications, and local knowledge are the best choices for your installation.

Benefits of Solar Rooftops

Posted on by solarman

Nowadays, we all realize how much it is necessary to switch to clean, reliable renewable sources than to depend on non-renewable sources. The world has been adopting renewable sources at a rapid rate. The shift toward clean, reliable, affordable electricity in Australia is most visible in the rapid growth of solar panels placed on top of roofs of commercial, institutional, or residential buildings. According to solar power statistics in Australia, this form of renewable energy is a developing industry. Extremely high potential for solar energy produces in Australia through intense sunshine and other vast resources for its environmental benefit.

A record of 11.5 million solar panels has been installed nationally from rooftop panels and large-scale solar farms. The report shows that 2018 is predicted to produce over 13 million individual solar panels. More than 10,000 people were employed directly in the sale and installation of rooftop solar panels in Australia.

Government figures show that a record of 3.5 million rooftop solar panels was installed by businesses and homes in 2017 alone. They are now selling their excess energy back to the grid. Even more than triple the numbers of batteries were installed last year, than the year before. The clean energy regulator demonstrated that the average solar system size in Australia has increased by 200% due to decreasing prices and increasing technology.

Solar energy is a renewable source of energy. Solar rooftop is solar panels placed on top of roofs of commercial, institutional or residential buildings. They capture the light energy emitted by the sun and convert it into electrical energy. This set-up is well known as solar rooftop photo-voltaic system. A well-suited five-kilowatt solar (photovoltaic, or PV) system can generate the equivalent of two-thirds to three-quarters of a typical household’s electricity use.

The energy derived from the sunlight, it has a wide range of applications and one of which is Rooftop solar system. It is used to convert solar energy into electrical energy to cater residential and commercial needs. It is quite useful and economical as compared to traditional electricity connection. Individuals and businesses have been attracted not just to the environmental benefits of solar power, but also to the ability to generate their own power and to the fixed and competitive price of electricity that these systems provide.

Few advantages to use solar rooftops

Electricity bill reduction

One of the biggest advantage of installing rooftop solar system is that you can eliminate or significantly reduce your electric bill. Solar rooftops are very cost effective. It is a one-time investment which has a guaranteed life for a much longer time. A normal electricity connection that you get from the state government is chargeable on a monthly basis which amounts too much more than what one pays for rooftop solar system at the time of installation. Besides that generally electricity prices keep on fluctuating from time to time. So, it is difficult to calculate the expenditure on electricity for a certain period of time. However, when it comes to electricity generated by solar rooftops, you also fix your electricity costs and make your monthly bill more predictable. So you can easily maintain your expense forecasting and management capabilities.

Environmental Effects

Solar rooftops are solar panels placed on top of roofs of commercial, institutional or residential buildings. They capture the light energy emitted by the sun and convert it into electrical energy. It produces a clean, Eco friendly form of energy. It does not produce any type of pollution or harmful gases. So it helps to decrease environmental issues like climate change, air pollution or any kind of health problems related to carbon emissions. No extra land is required to set up rooftops. With widespread usage, solar rooftops can help in minimizing global warming.

Smart Policies: Tax incentives and subsidies

There are many tax advantages to installing a solar rooftop system. You’d get government rebates and other financial incentives are keys to the success of rooftop solar and the clean electricity that these systems provide. Some effective policies are being used:

Small Scale Technology Certificates (STCs) –The federal government offers Small Scale Technology Certificates (STCs) for residential and smaller commercial entrepreneurs who invest in solar rooftops system.

Feed-in tariffs– If you install a solar system, Feed-in tariffs (FiTs) are also available for households or businesses. It means you’ll be paid for excess electricity generated by your solar PV systems which send back to the grid.

Net metering- Net metering is billing mechanism that give system owners credit on their utility bills for generating more electricity than they use, generally at the full retail electricity rates.

Increase your home value

Value of your home goes up high as soon as you get rooftop solar system installed. Every potential buyer would want to reduce long-term recurring costs like electricity and thus the home gets more appealing to them. Millions of Australian homeowners are interested in solar panel rooftops but haven’t taken the time to figure out what it takes to install them. This consumer reality and the undeniable benefits of having solar panels on a home complements recent studies that found property values increase after solar is installed. If you invest solar panels rooftops, then you’ll get the increased resale value of your homes when you sell your home in future.

Cost-Output comparison

As solar panel installations are increasing in number over residential and commercial roofs, the most talked about thing is the total energy costs incurred. It has been found out that savings in cooling costs amounted to sending 5 percent more solar energy to the grid than the system is actually producing for the building. So, to put it simply, the system works on 100% of its capacity which equals 105% of the traditional system and to top it all off, it demands more money and attention than the system.

Very low maintenance

Rooftop Solar System is a very low-cost maintenance system. It just requires proper cleaning of the system from time to time which is a very basic thing that it can demand. The lifespan is at least 25 years, which keeps you worry free for a much longer period of time. Connection stay put and everything holds tight. Basically, no major costs involved.

Through the installation of rooftop solar panels, we help ourselves, the environment, wildlife and our future generations by saving a lot of non-renewable energy. So, there will be no harm and only benefits of taking this step towards contributing to the economy on a personal level.

What solar system size do I need?

Posted on by solarman

After the government announcement about fantastic rebates in solar power installation, solar panels are so affordable right now. In fact, it is now possible to get a top-quality solar system to pay for itself within 3-5 years, saving your households tens of thousands of dollars over the life of the system. So what size solar installation system will best fit your home or business?

For an idea, a solar power system can save you up to $100 per kW in every quarterly bill, and you will get an output around 4 times its size as a daily average.

For example, a 10kW system will output around 40 kWh in a day & it can save you up to around $1000 in every quarterly electric bill. This rule of thumb for the households be good enough to search the answer to the question ‘What solar system size do I need?

To measure the accurate size of the solar system you need, you have collected a few pieces of key information from the household:

  1. What is the electrical load for the household? How much energy does the home consumed daily?
  2. What is solar resource/insolation? What is the strength of that sun or how much the Sun shines in your location?
  3. What is the portion of the home’s energy do you need from your solar power system? (i.e. 40%, 75%, 100%)

What is the electrical load for the household? How much energy does the home consumed on a daily?

The best way to calculate the above, you need to analyze the average of your last few months electric bills (to gather the average monthly electricity bill) and also need to find out the total consumption of kWh in a month for the household. After that, you need to calculate the average yearly usage with the above.

As per ‘Energy Information Administration’ it has estimated that the average family uses 940 kWh per month or 11,272 kWh/year.

There is another way to find out your home’s energy usage, it’s called TED (The Energy Detective), a whole-house monitor.

A whole-house monitor (TED) attached to your home’s electric meter and that will give you an accurate reading of energy consumed in the household on a daily basis. These types of equipment are really helpful because they will provide you with real-time information in a slick format.

What is solar resource/insolation? What is the strength of that sun or how much the Sun shines in your location?

The Solar intensity or Solar Insolation is measured in equivalent to the sun hours in a day at your locality. Full Sun hour is equivalent to one hour of maximum, or 100% sunshine received by any solar panel. You can take 6 hours of full sun hour, even though the sun may be above the horizon for 10-14 hours a day. One is a reflection because of the high angle of the sun in relationship to your solar panel. The second is additionally because of the high angle and also the quantity of the earth’s atmosphere the sunshine is passing through. When the sun is straight overhead the sunshine is passing through the least the smallest quantity amount of atmosphere.

Early or late within the day, the daylight is passing through far more of the atmosphere because of its position within the sky.

A tool called PV Watts, invented by The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is used to give permit professional installers and non-experts to quickly obtain performance estimates for grid-connected PV systems. The tool takes a few runs to get familiar with, but once you figure it will be critical for sizing your systems.

This is how you can determine the output of a system you are planning (A really simple but the rule of thumb formula):

(Ave. Hours of Sun) x (PV array wattage) x 75% = Daily watt-hours

We take the fudge factor as 75 percent; into account the real-world effects on a system. It certainly can vary, but not more than 5-7%.

What is the portion of the home’s energy do you need from your solar power system? (i.e. 40%, 75%, 100%)

In a grid-tied system, you ought not to cowl 100% of the home’s electricity load, additionally you’ll not manufacture power once the grid is down.

Based on your solar resource, your household limitations, and your finance you’ll decide what share of the electrical load you would like to hide for your purchasers.

In choose states, you’ll sell excess electricity through a web metering program to your utility, however, it’s not out there altogether states.

Determine Insolation

  1. Locate a solar insolation table online to determine the insolation, the average number of hours per day that the sun produces peak sunlight (i.e. an accumulation of all sunlight equivalent to that amount of peak sunlight), for your area.
  2. Find the nearest city to you on the table and write down the average daily figure. To determine specific insolation data for individual days of the year.

Determine Insolation

  1. Plug the figure from Section 1, Step 3 “Daily kWh” into the following calculation. Use the average insolation value from Section 2, Step 2 for the “# hours” to determine how many kW you need your solar system to generate per day: Daily kWh / # hours = # kW
    e.g. 12 / 4 = 3
  2. Plug the answer from the previous step into the following calculation, which accounts for standard energy losses of solar PV systems: # kW x 1.3 (increase the size of the PV system by 30%) = # kW (actual size of PV system you need)
    e.g. 3 x 1.3 = 3.9In this example, you would need a 3.9 kW solar PV system to satisfy your home’s energy needs.

Size of Solar Panels

To calculate the size of your solar photovoltaic system, take your daily kWh energy requirement, and divide it by your peak sun-hours to get the kW output you need. Then divide the kW output by your panel’s efficiency to get the total number of solar panels for your system.

After you know the number of panels you need, the next step is to determine if you can fit them all on your roof and if you have the right kind of roof to mount panels on.

Total Number of Solar Panels

  1. Measure how much space you have to mount your solar panels.
  2. Decide on a budget for your system.
  3. Find a system that satisfies your power requirements, but still fits within your space restrictions. This will determine if you need a roof-mounted or ground-mounted system and if you’re eligible for a solar roof shingle system.

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