Solar Panel Cleaning

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: June 8, 2024

The heart treatment , also called in this blog the walk, went very well today. On the trail we got to meet Addi a very polite and nice major social pup. Her caretakers (owners) said that she never pulls on her leash but keeps it a bit slack at all times. She was a very nice new addition to my long list of nice pups we meet on the trails around here.

We did not know it when we started but today was a super special day on the trail. When we started this morning we recognized what was going on by the orange paint all over lots of things in the trail. Here is a couple of pictures so you can see what we mean.

The local schools cross country race was this morning. The night before the race they mark lots of the tripping hazards along the route and the paint slowly fades away a few months until early Autumn. During that time the serious runners train on the hike and bike trail where the race was held. And the OFM waddles along the trail also.

It has been a nice day overall and the OFM has enjoyed the weather and his meandering around thinking about many things. Then suddenly in early afternoon he remembered we have some mild rain due in starting tonight. We need to get the solar panels washed so the rain can do a good job of finishing washing them off nice and clean.

Normally we find that rains do a sufficient job of keeping the panels clean for good performance. But this year under the low hanging trees has left a slime layer and the trees prevent direct impact by the rain drops until the water drips gently from the low hanging limbs. We had noticed a bit of decline in the performance of the panels in the last few months. When we checked them a couple of weeks ago we found the thin dirt and green slime layer on the panels.

It is easy to clean off with a brush and soapy water but is another of the many RV life special chores folks do not get to hear mentioned at an RV sales business.

The OFM purposely installed his panels along the edge of the Castle roof so he could use a ladder to allow him to wash them.

You can see the edge of the panel a couple inches above the roof in that last picture. There are two panels on the other side.

The OFM just climbed up on the ladder and was able to reach a whole panel for washing from one ladder setup. This minimizes his chance of falling.

He does not bounce well any more.

Then we repeated the set up twice more on the other side for those two panels. Here is a picture of the dirty panels on the other side before washing.

It was not hard scrubbing at all. Just soap and water and our back scrubbing brush rubbed gently on the glass front of the panel. And a rinse down with the hand sprayer we have for these sorts of chores.

A neighbor offered his high pressure water sprayer but we preferred a much more gentle cleaning for the caulk where the panels mount to the trailer roof.

The best news of all is the OFM did not get any injury from the whole process of cleaning.

Those panels were OFM installed in September of 2008 after we learned about our boon-docking needs. So they have lasted very well. Our after washing, the output for the panels was back up to100% of design. We plan to use their capacity again this fall during our rolling adventures in the western deserts.

It has been an adventurous day for us over all so we are going to shut down and see what supper looks like tonight. Sleep well and try for tooooo much fun tomorrow.