Any Nordic solar panel owners here (kindly boost for visibility) --- or others living in similar conditions.
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Any Nordic solar panel owners here (kindly boost for visibility) --- or others living in similar conditions. Have you ever brushed snow off your panels?
We have a roof angle of 8°; snow doesn't slide off the panels. That means in February we get nothing, even though the sun is already shining pretty bright some days. Though I don't know how much energy there is as the panels are dark.
I've read that the panels are easy to damage so I haven't tried. Looking for experiences.
@nicd I've been brushing the snow from the piece of roof that's under the panels, so that the snow from panels will slide down easier and not pile up - but haven't really dared to touch the panels themselves.
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Any Nordic solar panel owners here (kindly boost for visibility) --- or others living in similar conditions. Have you ever brushed snow off your panels?
We have a roof angle of 8°; snow doesn't slide off the panels. That means in February we get nothing, even though the sun is already shining pretty bright some days. Though I don't know how much energy there is as the panels are dark.
I've read that the panels are easy to damage so I haven't tried. Looking for experiences.
@nicd I rent a space that has panels all over the building. As long as they aren't beaten to death, it's fine to use a soft brush to get the excess snow off them. You don't have to get it all off, the panels heat up as they work and the rest just melts. A 1-2cm coverage is something you might as well just ignore, that'll melt during the next sunny day. But a 20cm overnight coverage will be something that needs a little help with a brush.
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@nicd I rent a space that has panels all over the building. As long as they aren't beaten to death, it's fine to use a soft brush to get the excess snow off them. You don't have to get it all off, the panels heat up as they work and the rest just melts. A 1-2cm coverage is something you might as well just ignore, that'll melt during the next sunny day. But a 20cm overnight coverage will be something that needs a little help with a brush.
@nicd Just to add, I see ours work pretty nicely even during the winter. The system has a kWp of 21 and here's how it's been doing this week.
The neat part is that during most days we can play solar powered pinball, during the summers we often have enough solar production even during nights.
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@nicd Just to add, I see ours work pretty nicely even during the winter. The system has a kWp of 21 and here's how it's been doing this week.
The neat part is that during most days we can play solar powered pinball, during the summers we often have enough solar production even during nights.
@apz That's a lot! We have around 5 kWp. I can scale this to our situation, thanks.
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@neverbeaten I've been thinking of vertical or near-vertical panels but we don't really have a good place for them.
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Any Nordic solar panel owners here (kindly boost for visibility) --- or others living in similar conditions. Have you ever brushed snow off your panels?
We have a roof angle of 8°; snow doesn't slide off the panels. That means in February we get nothing, even though the sun is already shining pretty bright some days. Though I don't know how much energy there is as the panels are dark.
I've read that the panels are easy to damage so I haven't tried. Looking for experiences.
@nicd I've brushed snow off my array as needed over the years. Panels are extremely robust and brushing them doesn't hurt them.
Since the panel starts to heat up after some of it gets sun exposure it might be sufficient to just brush the lower edge of the 8° array. It guess it would also be possible to mount a warming strip on the backside of the panels.
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Any Nordic solar panel owners here (kindly boost for visibility) --- or others living in similar conditions. Have you ever brushed snow off your panels?
We have a roof angle of 8°; snow doesn't slide off the panels. That means in February we get nothing, even though the sun is already shining pretty bright some days. Though I don't know how much energy there is as the panels are dark.
I've read that the panels are easy to damage so I haven't tried. Looking for experiences.
@nicd
Just a few days ago I brushed off around 15cm of snow from a single roof solar panel in Southern Finland. You have to be a bit careful as the surface is basically glass. My small panel was not very expensive and I used a soft brush. -
@Linza @neverbeaten Hah that's a genius idea!
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Any Nordic solar panel owners here (kindly boost for visibility) --- or others living in similar conditions. Have you ever brushed snow off your panels?
We have a roof angle of 8°; snow doesn't slide off the panels. That means in February we get nothing, even though the sun is already shining pretty bright some days. Though I don't know how much energy there is as the panels are dark.
I've read that the panels are easy to damage so I haven't tried. Looking for experiences.
I understand Australian standards require panels designed to cope with 25mm diameter hailstones. That is, hail big enough to dent your car.
We don't get much snow here, but get plenty of hail. Panels are pretty tough. A soft brush will be fine.
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Any Nordic solar panel owners here (kindly boost for visibility) --- or others living in similar conditions. Have you ever brushed snow off your panels?
We have a roof angle of 8°; snow doesn't slide off the panels. That means in February we get nothing, even though the sun is already shining pretty bright some days. Though I don't know how much energy there is as the panels are dark.
I've read that the panels are easy to damage so I haven't tried. Looking for experiences.
The building I used to work at (just retired) had solar panels angled so that snow accumulated. Maintenance staff would take a broom and sweep the snow off.
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