Installing solar panels on the roof of your home is going to require a pretty sizable investment on your part. Generally speaking, it can cost anywhere from a few thousand dollars to upwards of $50,000 for solar panel installation.
And the costs associated with solar panels don’t stop there. You’re also going to have to set aside some money for maintaining solar panels over the years to ensure they’re always working properly.
“Are solar panels expensive to maintain?” is a question you’re going to want to ask yourself prior to putting solar panels into place. It’ll prevent you from finding yourself in a position where you’re paying more than expected to maintain solar panels.
So, how much does it cost to maintain solar panels? The truth is that it all depends on what you need to do to maintain them.
Here are some of the steps you may have to take to keep your solar panels up and running and the costs that could come along with them.
Inspecting Solar Panels
As we mentioned a moment ago, there are many forms of solar panel maintenance that you should do over time to keep your solar panels working at full strength. But if you don’t do anything else, one of the key steps you should take is having your solar panels inspected.
Every five years or so, you should have a solar panel maintainer visit your home to inspect each of the solar panels on it. During an inspection, they can look for signs that might indicate issues with your solar panels.
They can also recommend any solar panel repairs that you might want to consider. For just a few hundred dollars in most cases, if that, you can have your solar panels inspected from top to bottom so that you can feel more confident in them.
You should, of course, go above and beyond just inspecting solar panels. But this is the most basic form of maintenance that you can do, and it’ll go a long way towards keeping your solar panels functional.
Cleaning Solar Panels
More often than not, the solar panels that you hook up to your home are going to be set up on top of your roof. This is obviously going to force them to bear the brunt of any bad weather that comes through your area.
This is also going to put your solar panels in a place where they will be inundated with leaves, sticks, bird droppings, and other debris. It’ll be your job to keep them clean as best you can.
You might be able to get away with doing a lot of the cleaning that will need to be done to your solar panels on your own. The answer to the question, “Are solar panels expensive to maintain?”, will be, “No!”, if this is the case.
But if you’re not able to get up onto your roof or if you don’t have the time to clean your solar panels, you’ll need to hire someone to help you. That could cost you a few hundred dollars if not more every time you need to have it done.
Repairing Solar Panels
Once you have solar panels installed on your home’s roof, you shouldn’t have to worry about replacing them for a long, long time. Most solar panels are designed to stick around for at least 30 years or so before needing to be replaced.
But there will be times when you’ll need to make repairs to your solar panels, and it’ll be very important for you to do them as soon as you can. You’re not going to be able to make the most of solar panels when they’re not working the way they should.
If you have solar panels on your roof that are broken or that don’t appear to be doing their jobs, it’ll be essential for you to Google “solar providers near me” so that you can get a hand with them.
Solar providers can figure out what’s wrong with your solar panels and get them back on the right track. Or they can suggest replacing individual solar panels to beef up your solar system as a whole.
This could cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars for a basic repair to thousands of dollars for solar panel replacement.
Keeping Solar Panels Out of the Shade
When you first have solar panels put up on your roof, a solar provider will make sure they get easy access to the sun. But over time, they could lose this access to the sun because of overgrown trees.
If this ever happens, you’ll need to trim the trees surrounding your home or even consider cutting some of them down altogether. This is yet another important step when it comes to solar panel maintenance.
The cost to trim trees can come in at under $100 in many cases depending on what kind of trees they are. But you could also be on the hook for paying over $1,000 to have certain types of trees removed.
It’s a good idea to look at the trees that surround your home prior to putting solar panels on your roof in the first place. You should have some idea as to what kind of maintenance you’re going to need to do to the trees to stop them from shutting down your solar panels.
Are Solar Panels Expensive to Maintain? It Depends on Your Situation
Before you put solar panels on top of your home, you should always ask yourself, “How do you maintain solar panels?” It’s nice to know what you’re getting yourself into when installing solar panels.
You should also ask yourself, “Are solar panels expensive to maintain?” You don’t want to end up paying a small fortune to maintain solar panels and offset the savings that they provide.
Consider the factors listed here when trying to determine what maintaining solar panels will cost you. It’ll give you a better idea of what to expect as you move forward.
Read the articles on our blog to get more information on solar energy.