Common questions. Straight answers.

Most San Diego homes (16–24 panels) run $200 to $325 per cleaning. We charge a flat per-panel rate — $12 per panel is typical for standard rooftop arrays. Steep, multi-story, or tile roofs are slightly higher. Maintenance plan members get a reduced per-panel rate.

Same-week scheduling on most cleanings. After major Santa Ana ash events we book out fast — call early. After-hours messages reach a real person who lives in the county, not a national dispatcher.

All major residential brands. We commonly work on systems with REC, LG, Q CELLS, Panasonic, SunPower, Silfab, and Hanwha panels paired with Enphase, SolarEdge, SMA, or Tesla inverters. Cleaning is panel-brand agnostic.

When the panel shows hot-spot etching, encapsulant cracking, frame seal failure, or near-zero output despite being clean. We can do a thermal scan with a drone to surface this. Replacement is uncommon — most production loss is soiling, shading, or microinverter faults, not panel failure.

Coastal homes (within a few miles of the ocean) need it every 6 months because of marine layer salt film. Central and inland homes can usually go 9–12 months. Backcountry homes need annual cleaning plus an event-based clean after dust storms or wildfire ash.

Pre-clean monitoring snapshot, soft-bristle brush wash with panel-safe surfactant, deionized-water spotless rinse, visual inspection for damage or critter activity, written report with before-and-after kWh once your monitoring portal updates. Standard visit takes 60 to 90 minutes for most homes.

Yes. The Solar Pros Plan covers two scheduled cleanings per year, panel-level inspection report, priority scheduling, and reduced rates on bird proofing if you need it. Month-to-month, no long-term contract.

Most San Diego systems we clean for the first time recover 5–15% of daily kWh. Coastal systems with heavy marine film can recover more. After a Santa Ana ash event, recovery is often 15–30%. We document the before-and-after so you can verify it in your monitoring portal.

A pre-dawn gentle hose rinse on cool panels is OK as a stopgap. Never spray panels in midday sun (water flashes and minerals bond), never use a pressure washer (cracks tempered glass and voids warranty), never use household cleaners. Hard water spotting from a midday hose rinse is one of the most common reasons people end up calling us.

That's almost always a hardware issue, not soiling. Could be a failed microinverter, a broken bypass diode, or cell-level damage. Mention it when you book — we'll bring an inspection drone to thermal-scan the array.

Yes. Bird proofing is a stainless mesh clipped under the panel array perimeter that blocks pigeons, rats, and squirrels from nesting in the warm space between panels and roof. Without it, droppings, urine corrosion, and chewed wiring become a recurring problem on most coastal installs within 18–24 months. Cleaning without proofing means we'll be back in 30 days.

Within two weeks. Ash particles are absorbent and accelerate production loss. The longer ash sits bonded to warm glass, the harder it is to remove. Do not dry-brush, shake, or pressure-wash the array first — book a deionized-water soft wash.

Most can be restored with a proper hard-water-stain treatment (mild acidic compound, soft brush, immediate DI rinse). Severe etching from years of sprinkler overspray sometimes leaves permanent marks but does not affect production. We can usually tell the difference at the visit.

Visible burn marks or smoke from rooftop conduit, cracked or shattered panel glass with exposed cells in rain, or a complete production-zero event right after a storm. For these, cut DC and AC disconnects and call. A normal soiling problem can wait for next-business-day scheduling.

After-hours messages reach a rotating on-call tech who lives in San Diego County — not a national answering service. Typical response time for emergency rooftop issues is the same business day.

Yes. Warehouses, schools, multi-acre arrays, and ground-mount sites. Scheduled visits with documented before-and-after production reports for the property manager or asset owner. Priority scheduling for plan customers.