[KS Cleaning]

Cleaned 100 ground mounted solar panels for a customer today and he isn’t happy with what I charged. They are set up in rows ranging from 8 to 12
I do his house 4 weekly, massive bungalow in a rural setting, it’s a 1 million pound house, I know this because it was featured on a channel 4 programme about 9 months ago, so as you can imagine 1 million gets you a lot of house in this particular area. I text ahead so he knows I’m going through the security gates and he text back asking if I can clean the solar panels when I’m there. I’m thinking the panels were dirtier than roof mounted ones as they are more exposed to the dust off neighbouring land.
What would you have charged? It took me an hour and a half of hard scrubbing, working at a brisk pace, I used 200 litres of pure.

[simon w]

As long as he pays the bill on time I shouldn't worry about it

[Tam1872]

If it was for a customer of mine already, an hour and a half work. Using 200 litres I would charge 2 hours and just took £100 to £120.  If they asked why I'm charging 2 hours, I'd explain I'm now going to run out of water, so I have to nip home and refill. 

[Spruce]

What people don't want to realize is that it's not about how much you charge an hour, it's about your expertise and your investment in equipment needed to do the job.

If you quoted first, which you must always do, and they accepted your quote, then they haven't a proverbial leg to stand on. If they thought it was too expensive when you quoted, then it was up to them to reject that quote.

[Tam1872]

What people don't want to realize is that it's not about how much you charge an hour, it's about your expertise and your investment in equipment needed to do the job.

If you quoted first, which you must always do, and they accepted your quote, then they haven't a proverbial leg to stand on. If they thought it was too expensive when you quoted, then it was up to them to reject that quote.

With all due respect, it takes no expertise to wash ground level solar panels. There is zero skill involved.

[Scottish Cleaning Service]

I would be £200 because they have probably not been cleaned before. He will make money back because they will be more efficient. Sounds like a miserable sod but you should have done one and then told him the work involved with the price. I just sprayed a roof and it took me just over an hour but we had agreed £200 but that was clearing gutters also. So back tomorrow after noon to do gutters for him and the neighbour.

[Perfect Windows]

What people don't want to realize is that it's not about how much you charge an hour, it's about your expertise and your investment in equipment needed to do the job.

With all due respect, it takes no expertise to wash ground level solar panels. There is zero skill involved.

Expertise includes being someone who runs a viable business, does a good job and keeps coming back. Also, the part in red is crucial.

Vin

[Splash and dash]

Three to five pounds a panel , but surely you should have given him a price before starting the job ? So then there is no confusion. The pictures attached can’t see all the panels but there is 250 of them and that was £1250
The pictures were taken before the clean

[AuRavelling79]

£66 per hour. Counting 2 hours. (As said by Tam1872 you need to top up your water)

£132.00

[Tam1872]

What people don't want to realize is that it's not about how much you charge an hour, it's about your expertise and your investment in equipment needed to do the job.

With all due respect, it takes no expertise to wash ground level solar panels. There is zero skill involved.

Expertise includes being someone who runs a viable business, does a good job and keeps coming back. Also, the part in red is crucial.

Vin

I think when doing a job for an existing customer then charging what you would normally make in the hour doing windows is reasonable, there's no need to make extra from them when the job that they want done is relatively easy,  by all means charge more than your normal rate if its not an existing customer, I think some of us take them a bit for granted at times, myself included, without them though you don't have a job all year round. So we should be doing a bit more for them price wise than we would other people. Im not talking about doing yourself here, charge what you average over an hour over a month.


I have different prices for add on jobs for existing window customers and for ones I don't clean the windows for.

[windowswashed]

Always quote a price and wait out for the go ahead. Never just assume they'll be happy to pay an unknown price. Never do new work without them agreeing a price first!

[Slacky]

Three to five pounds a panel , but surely you should have given him a price before starting the job ? So then there is no confusion. The pictures attached can’t see all the panels but there is 250 of them and that was £1250
The pictures were taken before the clean

That doesn’t look easy. Distance. How did you overcome that?

[Splash and dash]

Three to five pounds a panel , but surely you should have given him a price before starting the job ? So then there is no confusion. The pictures attached can’t see all the panels but there is 250 of them and that was £1250
The pictures were taken before the clean

That doesn’t look easy. Distance. How did you overcome that?

Yes it’s a difficult job the panels are 25 high we had a cherry picker and did it from the front of the building as there is no access at the sides or back . The manufacturers have stated they have to be cleaned every six months to keep the warranty theses are the latest panels and have a film on the surface that is easily damaged by bird poo we have loads of seagulls near this building and already there is scarring on some of them ,will be interesting to see if it affects the output , the installers are also monitoring the output of each bank .

[KS Cleaning]

I cleaned them for him about 18 months ago and charged £80. I must have miscounted on that occasion (probably missed a row out) as I recall only counting 88. I remember driving away from the job thinking it was a little underpriced, but it only took just over an hour on that occasion. This time they were dirtier and it was sunny so they required more scrubbing and water, took an hour and a half so I told him it was £120 for the panels. He wasn’t very happy and complained that it was a 50% increase on last time. I explained it took a lot longer and used more water this time and that I had miscounted the number of panels last time so perhaps I had undercharged the last time…….He paid in the end.
I get what most are saying about quoting first, but jobs like this it’s hard to tell how long they will take or how hard the work will be.
Note to self, don’t clean an array of solar panels on a sunny day!

[Bungle]

Three to five pounds a panel , but surely you should have given him a price before starting the job ? So then there is no confusion. The pictures attached can’t see all the panels but there is 250 of them and that was £1250
The pictures were taken before the clean

Still hoping this site is gone for good?

[Tam1872]

I cleaned them for him about 18 months ago and charged £80. I must have miscounted on that occasion (probably missed a row out) as I recall only counting 88. I remember driving away from the job thinking it was a little underpriced, but it only took just over an hour on that occasion. This time they were dirtier and it was sunny so they required more scrubbing and water, took an hour and a half so I told him it was £120 for the panels. He wasn’t very happy and complained that it was a 50% increase on last time. I explained it took a lot longer and used more water this time and that I had miscounted the number of panels last time so perhaps I had undercharged the last time…….He paid in the end.
I get what most are saying about quoting first, but jobs like this it’s hard to tell how long they will take or how hard the work will be.
Note to self, don’t clean an array of solar panels on a sunny day!

Id honestly say to him next time you do the windows, next time he's wanting them cleaned you would encourage him to go get a few quotes, or have a look online for a rough idea of the price, tell him youl happily go with the current rate instead of the deal you gave him.

[KS Cleaning]

I cleaned them for him about 18 months ago and charged £80. I must have miscounted on that occasion (probably missed a row out) as I recall only counting 88. I remember driving away from the job thinking it was a little underpriced, but it only took just over an hour on that occasion. This time they were dirtier and it was sunny so they required more scrubbing and water, took an hour and a half so I told him it was £120 for the panels. He wasn’t very happy and complained that it was a 50% increase on last time. I explained it took a lot longer and used more water this time and that I had miscounted the number of panels last time so perhaps I had undercharged the last time…….He paid in the end.
I get what most are saying about quoting first, but jobs like this it’s hard to tell how long they will take or how hard the work will be.
Note to self, don’t clean an array of solar panels on a sunny day!

Id honestly say to him next time you do the windows, next time he's wanting them cleaned you would encourage him to go get a few quotes, or have a look online for a rough idea of the price, tell him youl happily go with the current rate instead of the deal you gave him.

He said he won’t be asking me to do them again………as far as I’m concerned, that’s a result! Cleaning windows are a breeze compared to these.
It’s like I’ve said on many occassions, knocking out houses nobody knows or gives any thought to your hourly rate, take on bigger jobs taking over an hour and the hourly rate comes under the microscope a bit.

[Slacky]

This is the worse solar panel job I've done. There were 600 panels, £6.00 a pop. Took a week.

On top of a grain store. Took a week.

Loved every minute of it. Pressure washed with a 15" FSC.