Clean It Up

UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: gazzen on July 05, 2012, 11:40:03 pm

Title: solar panel cleaning... how much ?
Post by: gazzen on July 05, 2012, 11:40:03 pm
how much do you charge per solar panel ? also best pole & brush to use ? have to quote for 36 panels and quite a few more  :). any info would be great
regards gaz
Title: Re: solar panel cleaning... how much ?
Post by: Walter Pole on July 06, 2012, 06:56:32 am
£2 per panel when access is good.
Title: Re: solar panel cleaning... how much ?
Post by: dazmond on July 06, 2012, 07:55:56 am
£2 per panel seems about right.if easy access they dont take long to clean.i use a carbon gooseneck with a sill brush attached.

ill be getting a supermax 40 compact so i can reach a lot more of these solar panels on my round.

currently i use my 25ft SLX


regards


dazmond
Title: Re: solar panel cleaning... how much ?
Post by: Richard 01903 on July 06, 2012, 08:20:42 am
Hi how often do you clean them ?? ???
Title: Re: solar panel cleaning... how much ?
Post by: giftedk on July 06, 2012, 09:55:02 am
Has any of you actualy cleaned  any ?, and if so how long do they take ?.
Title: Re: solar panel cleaning... how much ?
Post by: lozsing on July 06, 2012, 09:57:34 am
i have cleaned my own 16 panels on a bungalow about 20 -25 mins but i would imagine on a house you could double the time .
Title: Re: solar panel cleaning... how much ?
Post by: giftedk on July 06, 2012, 10:15:44 am
so going on £2 a panel for 16 panels= £32. How much in £ do the 16 panels earn a month for the customer, so that you can work out how much they are benefiting. Im told its £35 % loss in efficiency .
Title: Re: solar panel cleaning... how much ?
Post by: Carl2009 on July 06, 2012, 10:47:54 am
I thought about this but decided against offering the service just at the moment:

1. Many I have looked at are on roofs where I would need a much bigger pole than the SLX25 I have now. That's gonna cost and the potential customer base is still a bit small, but granted is growing.
2. Many of the houses i've seen them on I wouldn't be able to reach no matter how big a pole I have - I wouldn't be able to walk back far enough to enable the brush to make contact with the panel. This further reduces the customer base.
3. I've worried about damaging them, or at least being held responsible if they fail in some way post-clean. Insurance for such claims should there be any would be an additional expense, increasing further the length of time to break even.

I'd be interested to read on how others are finding cleaning them as i'm not ruling it out in the future.
Title: Re: solar panel cleaning... how much ?
Post by: tony atkinson on July 06, 2012, 03:29:53 pm
Hi all i have looked into all this and contacted companys who supply and fit these and i ask a few could i see a manual book they give on installing these and the maintance on these is nothing as they say its self cleaning and they tell them this on the install of the panals also its in the manual book there is a very thin rubber coating on them wich dus not allow anythin to stick to them and this coating softens and hardens with the weather and wen it rains it cleans them also cleaning these with the softest brush would still scratch the rubber coating and this would void the warrenty on them thats what a few company say wich i think is bullpoop ...these are maintance free ..
Title: Re: solar panel cleaning... how much ?
Post by: Walter Pole on July 06, 2012, 04:46:27 pm
They do get dirty....we have cleaned quite a few and have customers asking for a clean every 6 months. The bottom edges quite often build up with silty dust as you can get in gutters thereby affecting efficiency. Maybe in prolonged rain they would clean themselves but as mentioned the ones we have cleaned have been visibly dirty.
Title: Re: solar panel cleaning... how much ?
Post by: gazzen on July 06, 2012, 08:51:31 pm
Thankyou for all your replies. I was thinking £3-5  per panel .As you said dazmond, a supermax 40 would be ideal. I will put my price in. If accepted, will let you all know how i got on and add a few pics. Hope the rain clears, so we can all get back out there and enjoy our job ............  ;DI LOVE IT
regards gazzen
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