How do you go about protecting your solar panels glass

[Trekking]

How do you go about protecting your solar panel glass.
You guys cover them or do any type of protection while you're driving. Also wondering if you could cover them with lexan and if get enough Sun could get through to charge the batteries.

 

[WheelEstate USA]

I don't know of anyone who covers their panels. Other than a tree limb falling nothing should happen to them flat on the roof. Lexan wouldn't do much good if a limb was heavy enough to break one that wasn't covered.

Just wet them and run a squeegee over them to clean off dust every so often.

 

[Trekking]

Thank you! Yeah I didn't know if you would get stone chips from off the highway and othet debris.

 

[sparky1]

I never cover mine-other than when installing & connecting them up, since voltages are Maxed out & a short circuit would Harm the diode's inside them.
I also Don't use "Rain x" either, just wash them off, get water spots & dirt off.
sparky1.

 

[Optimistic Paranoid]

I've read somewhere that solar panels are all designed to withstand 1" hail stones.

Regards
John

 

[WheelEstate USA]

Glass on panels is heat treated to be more resilient. It takes a pretty good strike to crack one. The edges are the weakest points and that's why they're usually framed in angle alum.

 

[rvwandering]

Like everyone else has said - they're pretty tough. Ours have been in use for almost twenty years without a problem.