Removing Lichen on Solar Panels and Conservatory Roofs
,Welcome to our October blog!
In our latest entry, Darren discusses a topic that he is often asked about – cleaning solar panels and conservatory roofs.
One question I am asked most often is: “what can I use to clean solar panels or conservatory roofs?” What you may not know is that the answer very much depends on when they were last cleaned.
When working on solar panels, which haven’t been cleaned for a number of years and have accumulated a considerable amount of algae and lichen, a combination of tools are needed to work together to get the best results. Here are my recommendations:
- If you get the opportunity, try to do the work on a damp or overcast day - this seems to help soften the dirt and I personally prefer it to working in the glare of the solar panels!
- You are going to need some serious scrubbing power and I have found a combination of two of our favourite and most popular products works a treat. The Stainless-Steel Pad attached to the original DA Pad Holder provides excellent scrubbing power, which doesn’t scratch, and because it is stainless steel, it won’t rust. These pads are long-lasting but a new one will always work best, so I tend to use a new one to remove the lichen and then older ones for detailing the edges and removing lighter dirt, such as green algae, which comes off a lot easier. Check out my short video demonstration by clicking here.
Once you get the top of the lichen spots off, I would use the Tucker Alpha Scrubber to scrub away the rest of the dirt and give everything a good rinse.
The Tucker Alpha Scrubber is a fantastic combination of a scrub pad with an over-rise bar and swivel angle adapter - giving you more scrubbing power and moveability than a standard water-fed brush and a decent flow of water to rinse the dust and dirt away.
If the fantastic Tucker tool is on your wish list, don’t forget it is due back in stock from the end of this month!
I hope my recommendations help you. If you have any other questions, please send me a message.