How Do I Maintain My Solar Panel System?

In Nigeria, Solar energy is becoming a reliable alternative to most people who’re looking for constant electricity. When you look at the high cost of Electricity bills and the unstable national grid that collapses from time to time, you’ll understand why most Nigerians are now going after solar energy.

If you already have solar energy and you want to make sure that it lasts as long as possible, you’ll need to regularly maintain your solar panels so that you can easily avoid having to spend more money for repairs.

We’ll use this blog post to guide you through on the different ways you can use to maintain your solar panels so that it’s going to serve you as long as possible.

Why Is Solar Panel Maintenance Important?

Solar Panels are manufactured to last a very long time, many solar Systems are made to last around 20 to 30 years, but if you fail to take proper care of these panels like cleaning them up, dusting them up and reducing how possible they’ll get dirtied. If you regularly maintain your solar panels, it will

a.Keep your solar system working for as long as you possibly want

b.It will help you extend the lifespan of your solar panels, they’ll practically last more than they normally should.

c. Cleaning your solar regularly will help you to prevent expensive repairs, the chances of your panels getting damaged when you clean regularly is very low.

d.If your panels are in good order, you’re sure of getting a very consistent power supply for your homes as well as in your Business places too

If you neglect maintaining your solar regularly, it could affect the capacity of your panel giving you maximum energy

How to Maintain Your Solar Panel System

There are so many ways to maintain your solar panels, we’re going to look at some of them.

1. Keep Your Solar Panels Clean

You need to keep your solar panels as neat as possible, birds droppings could easily prevent sunlight from reaching the panels.

If you want to clean them very well, here’s how to do it.

a.Make sure you are using very clean soft clothes, or you can use a sponge with clean water to wipe the panels, try to do that very gently.

READ ALSO: Will Solar Panels Increase the Value of My Property?

Avoid the temptation of using very hard materials that could easily scratch the surface of your panels. These panels really need to be in top quality for you to make the most out of them.

c.We advise that you clean the panels only in the morning or evening periods, this will help you to avoid some thermal shock from the sun heat.

d.If you happen to live in a dusty area, we’ll highly recommend that you clean your panels at least once every month, however for those that live in the City, cleaning one in two to three months is also recommended, during the rainy season, rainfall will take care of most cleaning.

2. Inspect for Physical Damage

We cannot rule out the potential presence of storms or falling branches within our environment, these can actually cause a crack on the panels.

While damaged panels could still generate power, it’s likely to be done on a reduced capacity, if you happen to suspect any damages on your panels, we highly recommend that you contact Arenahub for proper inspection as well as repair, if you decide to ignore little cracks from the beginning, it could lead to bigger issues that could drain your budget, so we advise that you start early to avoid spending excessively

3. Monitor Energy Output Regularly

Your solar system is expected to give you a good amount of electricity daily, if you happen to notice that you are no longer getting as much power as you used to get, know that there’s a problem, something might be actually wrong with the system,

What you have to do is the check your solar inverter display, alternative you can check your solar monitoring app to keep track of your energy production level.

If for instance you notice that your output levels have become lower than they usually are, it might be an indication something is wrong somewhere and your panels might need cleaning or even servicing, you can always compare your daily and monthly energy output to see if there’s any changes.

4. Ensure the Inverter Is Functioning Properly

The Inverter is very much important topic the functionality of your solar system, their main main job is to help you convert solar energy to Electricity energy that you can make use of.

If your inverter fails to do this conversion, your entire solar system will also stop working, Always look out for error messages or some warning lights on the inverter, keep a listening ear to unusual noises that might be coming out from the unit and always keep your inverter in a cool and ventilated are so it doesn’t overheat. If you notice any failure with your inverter, you could contact us, we’ll provide you with a professional troubleshooting

5. Maintain Your Solar Batteries

Some solar Systems do include batteries, if you’re happen to come with batteries, then you really need to pay serious attention so that they could last for you as long as possible. For you to maximize your battery, take note and do the following

a.Make sure your solar panels are always kept in a very cool place. The essence of doing this is so that your battery doesn’t overheat.

b.Always be on the lookout for corrosion on the terminals, if it’s necessary to clean, do it instantly without looking Back.

c. Lots of people tend to allow their batteries discharge fully, that’s not cool though, do not let your batteries to be fully discharged, if you are charging your battery regularly, it will help to extend it’s battery life

d. If you are using batteries that are made of lead-acid, always check their water levels on a monthly basis and make sure you refill them with a distilled water, on the other hand lithium batteries need little or no maintenance, the reason why we highly recommend them for our customers.

6.Watch Out for Those Rodents and Birds:

Rodents can actually chew through electrical wires and birds on the other hand could decide to neat near your solar panels which could create debris that may affect negatively on your solar panels.

a.You should always make use of protective netting around your panels so that these birds can’t mess around.

b. Try to get all your wires well insulated so that rodents would have their ways through them, if you happen to notice any damages, we’re a phone call away from getting it sorted.