A solar array in Rene Place loses output to something specific. An ordinary dust load on a compact roof with limited plane area.
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The soiling here is the standard valley mix — dust, pollen, a smoke film most late summers, and sprinkler overspray on anything mounted low. Compact lots and modest rooflines mean arrays here are usually on a single plane and reachable, which keeps quoting straightforward. The honest expectation is a sensible few-percent recovery on a genuinely soiled array rather than a dramatic one, and we would rather say that than imply otherwise.
Alongside ordinary dust, an active build phase puts drywall powder, stucco overspray, mortar fines and paint mist onto these arrays. Drywall dust goes to paste the first time it gets wet and then dries bonded; mortar and stucco fines are worse because they are alkaline and gritty at once. None of it comes off with a hose and all of it scratches if brushed dry, which on a panel is permanent output loss rather than a cosmetic mark.
On a house this new the array is almost certainly inside its manufacturer warranty, which raises the stakes. Abrasive scratching and soap residue are both things an installer can point at, and neither is worth risking to save ten minutes. We use pure deionized water with nothing dissolved in it and no soap at all, and where pitch and footing do not honestly permit roof access we say so rather than improvising on a new roof.
Arrays are quoted per array after a look at the roof, because reach rather than panel count usually sets the number. Every wash is 100% pure deionized water with no soap — soap residue on panel glass attracts the next round of dust and can raise a question with your installer, so there is nothing to gain from it. Five-thousand-foot lots put houses close together, so side access is the thing we check at the quote.
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If it is genuinely soiled, yes, in proportion. If the panels were done last year and look clean, we will tell you to wait rather than taking the booking — there is no sense selling a cycle that cannot deliver.
Enough to matter on a soiled array, and we will give you an honest answer rather than a number we cannot stand behind. Uniform dust costs a few percent; a bonded or patchy film costs more because it shades cells unevenly. If shade rather than soiling is limiting your output, cleaning will not fix it and we will say so.
No — 100% pure deionized water and nothing else. Soap residue on panel glass attracts dust and can raise a warranty question with your installer, so there is nothing to be gained by it.
You can, and it often backfires. Eagle's water is hard, so a hose rinse dries into a mineral film that shades cells about as well as the dust did. Worse, hosing does not lift grit — it redistributes it, and anything then brushed is abrasive on glass you cannot replace cheaply.
Yes — Eagle is one of our nine Treasure Valley cities and we run it as a regular route rather than a stretch call, from the Chinden edge up into the foothills. Call or text (208) 453-6760 and we will tell you the next open slot.
Our 7-Day Rain Guarantee covers it. Rain on a clean surface is largely harmless — it is the dust it lands on that spots. If a storm genuinely undoes the work inside seven days, we come back out.
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