There are a lot of reasons to go solar: take advantage of the tax credit, increase the value of your property, and reduce your electric bills. Another great reason is they don’t require much panel maintenance after installation. Outside of an occasional rinse, solar panels are surprisingly durable. It’s not rare to continue producing well beyond their 25-year warranty, even with Texas summers and hail storms.
As far as cleaning is concerned, nothing beats a pressure wash. We recommend cleaning your panels about twice a year, but it really depends on the weather. If a month has been particularly dry or pollen is high, cleaning your panels could help production.
Monitoring Your Solar Panels
How can you tell if cleaning will help? check the monitoring app. We’ve used Enphase microinverters in every installation since 2020. You can monitor your panels through the Enphase Enlighten app. Watch the video below for a guided explanation. Once you’re familiar with the app, compare panel production overtime to look for any anomalies that require panel maintenance. You may notice on the app your solar panels perform differently based on the day as demonstrated in the photo below. It’s normal and does not require panel maintenance. The production of your panels will vary by the day, and especially by the season. Fortunately, Texas gets over 230 days of sunlight, and our evaluations take weather variation into consideration to provide you the most accurate estimate possible.
Tree Trimming
Another great thing about the monitoring app is its hour-by-hour production monitoring. It’s super easy to tell if a tree or bush needs to be trim based on any shadow over the panels. For example, the image below shows almost all the panels performing at peak performance, except one. The dark blue panel has a tree casting a shadow on it. If the homeowner were to trim the tree, their panels would produce more electricity.
