Dirty, dirty, dirty

After three days of good sun this week I was disappointed my battery was still registering an empty status. I've noticed this pack reports only four capacity states, 0% (empty), 80%, 90%, and 100%. But I'm not even getting an 80%. Checking out the panel on Wednesday, I noticed a layer of pollen, dust and other gunk had collected on the surface. Surely this sooty crap has a negative effect on the panel's wattage.



Today I pulled in the panel, gave it good wipe down and set it back out. You can see in the pic the grossness that came off the surface. And this was after a full day of heavy rain!

I'm wondering how people in houses with panels on the roof deal with debris, pollen, bird poo and other detriment that builds up on their panels. Please leave a comment with some insight. Meanwhile, I'll be fishing my panel in and out of my window for some regular cleanings.