So its condensed moisture from room air, any thing acidic I blame on the wife. Technically, any body odor(methane) or room dust will be in it tiny amount.
Speaking of bird poo, if you run high power strings you may want to read this;(Like a huge pile of bird poo on a panel) For some reason I'm envisioning a giant stork taking a crap on them.
Seems like you'd want to treat the panels like a vehicles paint. Don't let bird poop linger. Wonder if waxing would help protect the panels? Traditional carnauba versus synthetic?
The issue is the cell in series gains resistance when there is low light creating a bottle neck or hot spot. Check out this thread I started a while back; By the way, I have seen hot cells using FLIR while completely clean.
diysolarforum.com
Wow those do look a hell of a lot better. I'm gonna try to clean mine once per month real good with the same brush you use.
Could you tell if clean panels helped your production or was it negligible?
That is so true!! If my ground mount wasnt next to my garden I wouldnt clean them. I just happen to have a hose in my hand so why not.
No discernible difference. And I'm a data junkie when it comes to assessing stuff like this.
I am definitely not a Bot …
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I call mostly BS. If your solar panels collect the amount of guano in those pictures, then by all means you should probably at least hose them off. If you are getting hit with mass seagulls, the salt spray is going to be something worse it permeates everything in a costal environ. I can't imagine bird droppings eating thru the glass, perhaps minor corrosion on the frames over and extremely long time period. I get fly-by droppings, got the little woman to stop with the bird-feeders.
That pic is not a bird dropping. At which point, it's not going to get a clik either. That is clearly a shot with a baseball or rock or, ... that shattered the glass, at which point all kinds of stuff leaks in and corrodes, add electricity and whamo. You should eyeball your panels periodically for any kind of damage, along with your roof in general and most of the things on your property.
Could be in this case but this is a know issue in the industry. Do some digging, this guy isn't just making it up. Pushing thousands of watts through a just a couple of cells puts panels on the edge. All it takes is some shade (bird doo is shade) in the right spot and your done, especially if an already slow(more resistive) cell is the one that is shaded. Ever wonder why manufactures say shading voids the warranty?
Yup, FM = Freaking Magic. Anything can break if subject to abuse. I can tell you if you tape a piece of cardboard over a panel in a string it drops itself out of the string. This I have tested and confirmed. Nothing seemed to get hot or anything. Now if you want to take a baseball bat to it, your outcomes may vary. Piling a thick layer of guano on top of one should do pretty much what cardboard does. If your panel catches fire because a bird crapped on it, I think there were other factors at play.
I think you need to do some research on panel fires and what can cause them. You might be surprised on what you learn.
But you aren't pushing thousands of watts through just a couple of cells; you are pushing a fixed current through. While string voltage can cause other issues, the difference between 80V and 400-600V on a panel rated for 1,000V isn't going to see that much impact.
I think being a little less patronising might be more helpful.
www.gses.com.au
That's not how PV arrays work.
