While winters may bring a relief from the heat, they also bring a need for heating as well, which then drives up energy consumption by a lot. As such, to ensure that your solar energy system is working efficiently to deliver electricity to keep up with the increased demand, you will need to prepare your solar energy system for the winter, also called winterizing the solar energy system. While it isn’t anything like proper preparation, it is still important, since it will ensure that your solar energy system keeps working efficiently.
Let’s look at some of the steps for preparing your solar energy system for the winters and how you can make sure that your solar energy system keeps generating electricity to be consumed for maintaining temperature.
Winterising your Solar Energy System
Here are some steps that you can take to properly winterize your solar energy system, starting with the solar panels.
i. Wipe down your solar panels
Ample maintenance is very important to get the most out of your solar energy system, and the bulk of that maintenance should go towards the solar panel. While solar energy generation is not affected considerably during the winter, it is still affected. Which means that you will notice a slight drop in solar energy generation. For that, the solar panels need to operate flawlessly, and with regular maintenance, you will get that.
Aside from the occasional wipe down, before winter makes its landfall, clean your solar panels thoroughly and check all wiring to ensure that your solar panels are in their best condition to generate the maximum possible of solar energy.ii. Check the rest of the system
Aside from the solar panels, your system also has inverters, batteries and a lot of other equipment that might be affected by the temperature drops, especially if the drops are significant. For instance, in extremely cold temperatures, solar batteries are very likely to be affected, since their operating temperature does not support such thresholds. Which is why, to effectively winterize the system, you will need to check on the batteries as well and ensure everything is in order. Try to get a professional maintenance service to get your system winterized.
iii. Insulate your home and the system
Since a majority of your energy consumption will be concentrated on generating heat for the home, the one way you can essentially winterize the system is by insulating your home, thereby allowing your home to keep warm for longer periods, reducing your dependence on electricity to keep the premises warm. The same will go for your solar energy system; exposing them to extremely cold temperatures will affect their performance and their efficiency. Which is why, insulating both your home and your solar energy system is one of the best ways you can winterize your system.
iv. Thorough clean ups after snow
If winters in your area bring with them a lot of snow, you will need to have extra winterizing efforts. Snow means little sunlight, and since the panels have little to work with, you will need to step up and make sure that snow accumulation on the panels is not an issue and does not drastically affect the solar energy generation. If you have blizzard conditions, you will need to do so. However, light snow is fine, since the sunlight afterwards is enough to melt it off the solar panels.
Are Solar Energy Systems less efficient in winters?
While solar energy systems are not directly affected by winters per se, the length of the day and the effective time of sunlight is reduced drastically, which means that your solar panels will have a lot less sunlight to work with. Which means, that despite their efficiency, you will notice a decrease in solar energy generation. Therefore, winterizing the system is important, since it gives the solar energy system the edge it needs to keep generating ample energy.
Is snow a problem for Solar Panels or Solar Energy System?
No, not really. Most solar panels can easily withstand blizzard-like conditions and snow accumulation on the surface. Even a huge amount of snow accumulated on the solar panel does not generate enough force or pressure to damage the panel, but it will definitely affect the solar energy generation potential. Therefore, while snow is not the problem, the fact that sunlight wont be able to reach the surface of the solar panel means you wont have adequate solar energy generation.
Beacon Energy: For robust Solar Energy Systems
Beacon Energy is Pakistan’s fastest growing solar company, boasting one of the smartest hybrid solar energy solutions out there. Their flagship INTRIX has incredible features and is designed to maximize solar energy production to cope with the electrical grid problems that Pakistani households face. Even in the toughest of winters, Beacon Energy has systems that will stay efficient minus the extensive maintenance needs.
