[Solar Steve]

Hi Everyone.

A new industry takes time to mature. This has especially been true with the solar industry. We say it has been like riding the solarcoaster!

H&S generally has been the subject of a few threads on here recently and there always seems to be a new person wondering whether to clean solar panels. So I thought I'd provide you with an update from inside the industry.

It is now very much awake to the fact that window cleaners with no training should not be cleaning solar panels. The risks are too great. Because of my background in cleaning prior to becoming engaged with solar, two weeks ago I was tasked with collaborating with another company and writing the following:

1. A guide for asset owners as to what they should look for when choosing a solar panel cleaning company.
2. Minimum H&S guidelines for ANY solar panel cleaning company or individual who cleans solar panels. This will be submitted to the UK H&S Executive for review and possible future use and enforcement. This will also be put into the Operations and Management Guidelines Manual for the whole of Europe.
3.  A Best Practice Guidelines document which will help both asset owners and panel cleaning companies ensure they are getting and providing the highest levels of service.

None of these documents will allow room for a sole trader or window cleaning company to offer solar panel cleaning as a service without knowledge or training.

Changes are definitely coming and this will be to the benefit of you guys and asset owners. H&S for panel cleaning is currently sitting right at the top of the solar industry's agenda at the moment. Changes of some description may be in place as early as December this year. But solar panel cleaning is not going to be unregulated for too much longer.

[andyM]

[Slacky]

yea....

[Walter Mitty]

Hi Everyone.

A new industry takes time to mature. This has especially been true with the solar industry. We say it has been like riding the solarcoaster!

H&S generally has been the subject of a few threads on here recently and there always seems to be a new person wondering whether to clean solar panels. So I thought I'd provide you with an update from inside the industry.

It is now very much awake to the fact that window cleaners with no training should not be cleaning solar panels. The risks are too great. Because of my background in cleaning prior to becoming engaged with solar, two weeks ago I was tasked with collaborating with another company and writing the following:

1. A guide for asset owners as to what they should look for when choosing a solar panel cleaning company.
2. Minimum H&S guidelines for ANY solar panel cleaning company or individual who cleans solar panels. This will be submitted to the UK H&S Executive for review and possible future use and enforcement. This will also be put into the Operations and Management Guidelines Manual for the whole of Europe.
3.  A Best Practice Guidelines document which will help both asset owners and panel cleaning companies ensure they are getting and providing the highest levels of service.

None of these documents will allow room for a sole trader or window cleaning company to offer solar panel cleaning as a service without knowledge or training.

Changes are definitely coming and this will be to the benefit of you guys and asset owners. H&S for panel cleaning is currently sitting right at the top of the solar industry's agenda at the moment. Changes of some description may be in place as early as December this year. But solar panel cleaning is not going to be unregulated for too much longer.

Hi Steve.
So, any chance of a preview of the standards that you and others are trying to get adopted please?  The more people providing input, the more likely nothing is missed.

Maybe some of the cleaners in Scotland can call themselves solar panel cleaners and only clean windows as a (99%) sideline .  A way around licensing, or have the authorities figured that out?

[Cookie]

Hi Steve, As Walter says ...  in the interests of safety are you you therefore able to provide some very basic tips for those on this ? For example:

• Does the installation need to be switched off during cleaning?
• Is it better to clean panels on a cloudy day?
• Is there any recommended workwear? I see on another thread you mention rubber boots will do nothing to prevent electrocution. What about rubber gloves?
• Do you have examples of anyone who has been electrocuted whilst solar panel cleaning?

I have an electrician friend who has in the past installed the electrics for many domestic solar panels and he advised the risk of electrecution is virtually nil and that it is not necessary to switch off the inverter whilst cleaning, so I'm interested to hear your viewpoint, advice & tips on this. I have cleaned domestic solar panels for a few of my window cleaning customers without problem. Some H&S tips would be very useful to all of us on here....

[Spruce]

Nothing new here.

40 years ago the big companies would try to ensure the exclusion of all other competition suppliers by helping the purchaser draw up a spec sheet of the 'necessary' requirements that product had to have. Included in the spec sheet would be a feature that limited other tenders  from quoting if their product didn't identically match the spec. It didn't matter if the oposition had a better product or not; it all boiled down to exclusivity.

I have no experience of solar panels linked together on solar farms where panels linked together in series could/would have much higher voltages, but as cookie says, the installation on ordinary household roofs pose little to no threat of electrocution according to fitters and electricians I've spoken to as well.

The risk for us is actually cleaning them imho. Most of us would have to do that off ladders leant against the guttering as most of us don't have 'sky' poles where we can reach them from the ground.

Cleaning panels isn't a service we promote for this reason.
 

[Spruce]

Hi Steve, As Walter says ...  in the interests of safety are you you therefore able to provide some very basic tips for those on this ? For example:

• Does the installation need to be switched off during cleaning?
• Is it better to clean panels on a cloudy day?
• Is there any recommended workwear? I see on another thread you mention rubber boots will do nothing to prevent electrocution. What about rubber gloves?
• Do you have examples of anyone who has been electrocuted whilst solar panel cleaning?

I have an electrician friend who has in the past installed the electrics for many domestic solar panels and he advised the risk of electrecution is virtually nil and that it is not necessary to switch off the inverter whilst cleaning, so I'm interested to hear your viewpoint, advice & tips on this. I have cleaned domestic solar panels for a few of my window cleaning customers without problem. Some H&S tips would be very useful to all of us on here....

I've never criticized Solar Steve. He is an example of what one can do when finding and exploiting a niche market. He did that when solar was just starting to 'bud' so has developed a good business from that foundation. Hats off to him.

But, if you want to clean panels in the envisaged future, this sounds as though the only way you will be able to do it legally is to at the very least attend his training school and become certified. In future other companies will also offer this certification for a fee.

So I wouldn't hold my breathe getting an answer to your post. If I was in his shoes promoting solar panel cleaning to only be done by a specialised group of trained, certified people, I wouldn't answer this either.

How do you get rid of cowboys in the industry? Simple. Its a similar plan the effects electricians, plumbers, gas fitters, window fitters, etc. You can only have qualified, certified trademen working on your property by law. So if you are a kitchen fitter, you have to call on the expensive services of other trades to complete the job.

[Smudger]

Hmmmmm....

This comes up regularly and I’m sure at some point H&s will get specific but unlikely to stop any reasonably  compentant person working as they do now - most danger comes from the inverter then from any exposed wires sticking out of the array - these are located under the array well away from any location where normal cleaning takes place so electricution is highly unlikely - unless damaged (hit with hammer or similar) while installed it’s so or be quite freaky to find a damaged panel that could expose you to a shock

It’s widely recognised that the most dangerous time to be around a solar panel array is during installation and wiring up in the correct sequence

I’m yet to find any reference to electricution while cleaning - I’d be grateful for any links (not hearsay forum stuff)

Darran

[Smudger]

Just to add the frame is anodised aluminium which is non conductive so even if the wires were somehow exposed and both touching the frame it can not conduct electricity through water he array

Darran

[Bungle]

Hi Everyone.

A new industry takes time to mature. This has especially been true with the solar industry. We say it has been like riding the solarcoaster!

H&S generally has been the subject of a few threads on here recently and there always seems to be a new person wondering whether to clean solar panels. So I thought I'd provide you with an update from inside the industry.

It is now very much awake to the fact that window cleaners with no training should not be cleaning solar panels. The risks are too great. Because of my background in cleaning prior to becoming engaged with solar, two weeks ago I was tasked with collaborating with another company and writing the following:

1. A guide for asset owners as to what they should look for when choosing a solar panel cleaning company.
2. Minimum H&S guidelines for ANY solar panel cleaning company or individual who cleans solar panels. This will be submitted to the UK H&S Executive for review and possible future use and enforcement. This will also be put into the Operations and Management Guidelines Manual for the whole of Europe.
3.  A Best Practice Guidelines document which will help both asset owners and panel cleaning companies ensure they are getting and providing the highest levels of service.

None of these documents will allow room for a sole trader or window cleaning company to offer solar panel cleaning as a service without knowledge or training.

Changes are definitely coming and this will be to the benefit of you guys and asset owners. H&S for panel cleaning is currently sitting right at the top of the solar industry's agenda at the moment. Changes of some description may be in place as early as December this year. But solar panel cleaning is not going to be unregulated for too much longer.

Can I ask you who tasked you Ste?

[Don Kee]

Carillion

[Og]

Surely chas and safecontracter are enough Steve?
I was thinking of going down the mcs route as a usp but the big players just want a good price with standard pqq stuff. Doing one tonight, what joy.....

[Steve Newres]

Hahaha.

[Smudger]

just a little one today






Darran

[Steve Newres]

just a little one today






Darran

I was expecting pictures of fried men!

[Bungle]

Surely chas and safecontracter are enough Steve?
I was thinking of going down the mcs route as a usp but the big players just want a good price with standard pqq stuff. Doing one tonight, what joy.....

So, it wasn't you who was asked to collaborate with Ste. Hmm, who could this other company be?

[Smudger]

Sorry to disapoint

however they did forget to turn off the sun tracker so half way through it was rotating around towards the sun   

Darran

[Nick Day]

Steve,

I will give you a serious bit of advice..knock this on the head now, you ,will be giving away your intellectual rights.  If the HSE had a problem they would have been down on the industry like a ton of bricks (I quote the HSE)
You will work your fingers to the bone, it will be adopted as a European standard and you will get ......naffole. They will own the copyright and sell it to every person who wants it. Think I am kidding study BS 14960 and you will find your future. Most major manufacturers are gone and the industry is awash with small manufacturers who have bought the "Standard". We warned them, but they had a similar ego to yours, you've been advised.

[Splash & dash]

So Steve if this is such a dangerous job we are still all waiting for you to come up with the details of the person you claimed was electrocuted months ago and suprise suprise you have never responded why’s that then ?. 
Again if this is such a dangerous job why do you only pay 16 pence a panel for cleaning it should be considerably more  danger money ?
As others have said I was talking to a green gen manager only last week and he said the likely hood of anyone being electrocuted is so small it’s not worth worrying about
These peopke saying these things are industry experts not a window cleaner from Telford
Yes you have done very well for your self but please stop all the scaremainering, you single handedly have destroyed what could have been a nice little job for many people cleaning panels prices are so poor it’s not worth doing them any more unless it’s domestic.
Mechanical tractor cleaners will very soon be doing most of these large sites thank goodness as it’s sole destroying work any way
Good luck with your future involvement in the solar industry I hope you are the only one approved to clean these sites you are very welcome to them all especially down hear as there are 10s of thousands of the things round hear  that need doing

[Bungle]

I think he's gone for another couple of months again. Don't worry he'll be back 

Did you say 16p a panel?