This morning I performed a couple simple maintenance tasks for
our off-the-grid solar system: - Washing the solar panels - This
is actually optional maintenance, as you don’t have to wash your
panels. However, keeping solar panels clean and free of dust
etc. can appreciably boost your power output. - After washing
the panels (it has been pretty dry and dusty lately) I had about
10% more electricity being generated. Woot! - Adding distilled
water to the batteries - Flooded lead acid* batteries
periodically require distilled water to be added - *Lead and
acid, sounds pretty terrible right and not very ‘green’? While
you definitely want to wear protection when dealing with
anything involving acid, the good thing about the lead portion
of the batteries is that the lead very recyclable and there are
good programs in place to recycle lead-acid batteries: Lead–acid
battery recycling is one of the most successful recycling
programs in the world. In the United States 97% of all battery
lead was recycled between 1997 a