Our Rooftop Solar San Diego customers may not have to deal with it, but with heavy El Niño snowfall occurring in Flagstaff, Munds Park, and other parts of Northern Arizona, some of you may be wondering how all this snow is going to effect your solar panels and energy output.
Since there are likely to be more storms throughout this intense El Niño season, we wanted to provide you with some tips about your solar panels and snow, so that you can focus on the more important things like getting first tracks or building the perfect snowman.
Removing Snow From Your Solar Panels
Especially here in Northern Arizona, where it may snow for three days straight but then be sunny for a week, usually the snow will melt off itself. The dark color of solar panels attracts more sunlight and creates more heat to help it melt, and because your panels are placed at an angle the snow will usually slide right off. People with solar panels can actually avoid roof cave-ins because the heat of the solar panels allows the snow to disperse.
If you don’t want to wait for it to melt, we would not recommend getting up on the roof yourself, as you could easily slip and fall or perhaps be swept off with the falling snow or ice. However, we would recommend a soft snow Roof Rake, which has an extended arm to help you reach onto the roof from ground level as well as soft edges to avoid damaging your solar panels. Additionally, you can always give our team at Rooftop Solar a call and we’ll come clean them off for you for a small fee.
Don’t Panic About Your Energy Production
Solar panels can still function with light snowfall, but after several inches the panels may not be able to generate power. However, systems usually don’t produce as much energy in the winter because of the shorter days anyway, and because your system is designed with your annual energy usage in mind, variations in winter output are made up throughout other parts of the year. One or two days of no production will not significantly affect your annual savings.
After a Storm, Your Panels Are Actually Working Better
Solar panels perform better on cold sunny days rather than hot ones, and because all the snow reflects the sunlight, your panels might actually be performing better than usual. Additionally, when snow melts and falls off the panels it cleans them, improving their production potential.
If Any Damage Does Occur, We’ve Got You Covered
Call and talk to a Rooftop Solar representative as soon as you can, and we’ll send someone out to check out the damage immediately!
For more information on solar panels working in the snow, check out this link.
