Putting anything other than cleaner on a solar panel would be unwise. In far past days I have washed several layers of Mr Sheen from a TV tube when it turned brown and restricted light. What a polish would do under UV is unknown, as above, warm soapy water is all you should use.
Had panels over 40 yrs.
They get washed.. EVERY time it rains
Only time I washed any,
was when salt built up on those at transom of boat
8 ft above water.
I just put a 40w BP panel in trailer yesterday. 36yrs old
But one side just dropped out. Only 1A now.
It's mate dropped to 2A (Normally 2.2A all their lives) as well,
so it'll be going to god soon too.
But 36 and 38yrs (I bought new and have dates on them)
Ain't bad value for money hey.
Those old style panels are normally 2 strings of 6v x 1.1A Bridged
= 2.2A most of life.
I doubt these Chinese ones will last as long.
I have a 28yr old 50W Solarex and around17/18 yr old 80/85?A Kyocera.
Old Trace (Pot's) Regulator too from yacht.
Runs Solar.Wind Genny, and distributes Excess to Dumps or water heating element too
As well as turning on any coupled lights when daylight drops. (deck lights in hrbr))
Anybody that don't run Solar/Wind. has rocks in their heads.
I have in House. Pool.Caravan, and Ute. Plus Carport roof for boat batt's.
Plus a coupla small 6Aish Regulators, Still working, on shelf in garage.
Anybody want, pay freight (postpak)
and you can have them. 1 unused.
Bought for trickle charging and only tried one. Stayed with 10A unit.
There are a number of report papers published about the effects of not properly cleaning and protecting the solar panel surface. Climb up on the roof and look closely around the edges of your solar panels and you will see the film build up, a dark to black layer, this is causing increased heat build up in that area resulting in the cells being damaged and output reduced permanently.
OK, now wash the panel like you normally do, let it dry, now with a white cloth and some No2 cut and polish, rub a section of the panel like you would polish the car, now look at the cloth.... still white is it? Let that bit dry off and now lightly polish it, does that part look the same as the rest of the panel?
If you can't tell the difference then there is no point in reading further, but if you are now about to do the rest of the panels also get some good quality polish and give them a coat of that as well. Now each time it rains the dirt will simply wash off in the beading water, the wash with the hose will be effective and in 12 mths time give them another coat of the good polish.
The same works for any solar ho****er panels you have at home, the effect is quite surprising.
T1 Terry
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Those panels above I've just binned/binning. have been mounted on rear of yacht. flat in Stainless frame.
Standing in shed for 10 yrs or so. and for last 16 yrs Flat again on Carport roof.
At 35 plus yrs proven output without touching.
. I don't think I'll bother polishing something on a 2 storey roof that I never see and
are Euro Quality not Chinese.
These German Bosch are equiv, build wise to the Kyocera, BP and Solarex.
with Japanese build Crystal? in them.
Top Quality not bulk Quality.
26 Deg angle on roof in Tropics. We get well water blasted with rain.
My panels FLAT on last van roof for 13 yrs.
Never touched. still working well.
You can come and polish mine if you like.
The farms have been using them for decades. Thousands of them.
They ain't cleaned or polished.
Just water pressure sprayed occasionally. (I think.)
My Evac Tubes water heater on house roof. Never touched in around ten yrs.
and you still can't hold hand under water out of tap.
ALL these things are designed. and built.
to work independently. (In NORMAL) weather conditions/areas.
by themselves for a VERY long time.
with NO physical maint, polishing etc.
It will make very little difference in the real world to electrical outputs.
As my 40w'ers and others previously have proven to me.
Even after 38 yrs I was getting the guaranteed min of 2.2 less 10% after 20 yrs.
The one still running is still outputting 2.18 on Multi.
And the one I dumped still read 1.1 on good side.
They mainly fail through physical deterioration in internal wiring.
I have. in past. found faulty joins. drilled into glass and repaired.
Just for trial fun.
But this one deserved a decent burial down the dump I reckon.
No or little Rain. wind, High salt areas, etc. maybe different.
They MAY look"nicer" when polished.
But both practically, and electrically will make no Real advantages
in long term or short, figures overall.
The quality of film used in cells is more important than any shiny frame and glass.
Read up on it. they have diffing grades out of same mould cells.
The glass has modulated angles molded in.
to maximise the reflection of the rays to the cells.
After that it's all the cells and wiring to reg and battery system.
Reflectivity is bad. More light reflected, less light makes it to the silicon wafer.
Recently some companies have been researching coatings for solar panels that have surface texture at "sub wavelength" of light. They appear completely black, as zero light is reflected and improves the efficiency of the underlying panel by quite a few percent.
It's your panels, I don't particularly care if you polish them or not, but the scientific approach would be to try it and see if it made an improvement. I do get a lot of vans in here and the common statement is that they don't work as well as the did before, but a polish will see them back up to what was expected, kinda makes it hard to argue with but if you are happy with the way your panels work then I see no reason for you to do anything more. The question was asked and I replied to the question. I think the question was regarding anyone who had actually polished their panels and if they saw an improvement rather than the reasons why you hadn't polished your panels ;)
T1 Terry
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Maybe truck wash to clean the gunk off , One would think polish would deflect the light , And panels need adsorb the light
They only need part of the light, the colour you see is the part they don't need. The idea is to let all the light in by getting the surface as clean as possible and that involves polishing, the second stage is to get the unused light back out so the panel does not over heat, a clean face is needed for this as well. If the glass or synthetic surface on the light weight panels does not let part of the light in then the output is less, just like the polished car, the colour you see is the reflected light from the paint not the surface, all the other colours need to be absorbed. If a polished car was reflecting all the light it would appear to be white
T1 Terry
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The Wafers are the dark bits. To Absorb the light the white around them is to reflect the light/heat. the airflow passing underneath, and over the glass and plastic coating is to cool them.
Thermal is a primary cause of lowering output. A serve of water over them on a hot day will boost output . for a while.
Basically. As long as the surface is clean and not covered in crap.dust bird pup etc and there's not a shadow over ANY part. they'll work till the Wafers go Black,which. With good quality, Takes a very looong time. (38 yrs comes to mind)
Just a piece of string over any part of a NORMAL panel will kill most of it's output There are some not so susceptible. but basically they give less output overall. Though their owners tend to disagree.
Keep'em clean Just watch for bird pup etc and keep shadows of any part of. even a corner 2 in will kill output.and they'll give good long service.
Polishing etc. yes. they'll look nice. But Personally. i have better things to do with my time for any increase of output you think you'll get. But there again. I've never polished a caravan in the 50 odd yrs I've been using them. So what do I know hey. Truck Wash. Yep.
Going to watch an "illegal" movie now, sort of.
Link sent over from States by son. Movie Getting here legally, in Oct.
These internet links to each others computers really are great. ain't they
Son has movie in US. He and I can watch it together at same time.
on two different computers.
He has uploaded and can "watch" on Utorrent.
While I link to him and watch same movie he copied into his folders.
here in Aust at same time. magic.
-- Edited by macka17 on Wednesday 5th of October 2016 01:16:36 AM
I guess everyone will have their own opinion on any subject, some will actually look outside the frame work of personal belief and see if there is any merit in another's point of view or suggestions, some will just cling to their belief as if they were in denial that they could have been wrong for so long, just one of those things that make us who we are I suppose.
T1 Terry
__________________
You can lead a head to knowledge but you can't make it think. One day I'll know it all, but till then, I'll keep learning.
Any links to any sites or products is not an endorsement by me or do I gain any financial reward for such links
I guess everyone will have their own opinion on any subject, some will actually look outside the frame work of personal belief and see if there is any merit in another's point of view or suggestions, some will just cling to their belief as if they were in denial that they could have been wrong for so long, just one of those things that make us who we are I suppose.
T1 Terry
So very true Terry.
Aussie Paul.
-- Edited by aussie_paul on Wednesday 5th of October 2016 07:56:53 PM
We're all right about some things, and wrong about others. It varies.
Boils down to the feasibility and or usefulness of whatever hey.
Great movie though.
So what was the name of the movie? You must have a different breed of wife to mine, I don't think I've ever been right since I've known her so I've just accepted that I can be wrong all the time
T1 Terry
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You can lead a head to knowledge but you can't make it think. One day I'll know it all, but till then, I'll keep learning.
Any links to any sites or products is not an endorsement by me or do I gain any financial reward for such links
We're all right about some things, and wrong about others. It varies.
Boils down to the feasibility and or usefulness of whatever hey.
Great movie though.
So what was the name of the movie? You must have a different breed of wife to mine, I don't think I've ever been right since I've known her so I've just accepted that I can be wrong all the time
T1 Terry
Yeah mate you're a man after my own heart ,but then again what would we do without them!!!!! PLENTY LOL.
Yea.
I just married mine on her 70'th
After 16 yrs of trial.
Not sure who was trialing who though. shhhhh.
Movie.
Jack Reacher. Never go back.
along with A Monster called. the magnificent 7.
Suicide squad (that's a good laugh) Blood father.
all pre Aust release when I get them.
Mainly good copies. some a little iffy, I Just try again with 200gig to play with.
Peters dragon is a very NICE kids(me) movie. saw that early last month.
PS.
ANYBODY That doesn't realise he's ALWAYS wrong when in the presence of madam.
Is a bigger fool than he looks.
Out of radius a different matter. As long as she don't HEAR you.
If a man says what he thinks while alone in the forest is he still wrong? Well of course he's wrong.... unless it was what she was thinking and then the claim is that the thought was projected into his head from the superior intellect :lol:
T1 Terry
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