Propserve Solar & Window Cleaning Division
Division 06 of 09
Cleaning of solar arrays and building glass with purified water. It recovers the yield you paid for and keeps façades presentable, without harming panels or seals.
Audi Centre Pinetown. Glazing and cladding washed down from the forecourt.
Dirty panels quietly cost you generation.
A solar array is the one asset on a building that loses money silently. Salt haze off the sea, humidity, pollen, bird fouling and cane and construction dust build a film across the glass that reduces output, and because the loss is gradual most owners never notice it. They simply generate less than the system was designed to produce. Soiling losses of a few percent are ordinary; on neglected or shaded arrays they are considerably worse.
We work with a reverse osmosis and deionisation system that strips practically every mineral and impurity out of the water before it reaches the glass. What comes out the other side is pure water, close to zero dissolved solids, fed through lightweight carbon fibre poles to a soft brush on the end. It cleans and rinses in one pass, and because there is nothing dissolved in it, it dries leaving no streaks, no spotting and no residue.
That also means no detergents. Detergent leaves a film that attracts dirt again within days, which is why a soaped window can look worse a fortnight later than a rinsed one. Pure water is the opposite: stripped of its minerals it actively lifts dirt off the surface, then evaporates and leaves nothing behind. No abrasives and no high pressure either, because those are what scour glass, damage a panel’s antireflective coating and force water past frame seals.
The poles are the other half of it. Ours are carbon fibre telescopic poles that reach 17 metres from the floor, roughly five storeys, and they are light enough to control at full extension. Glass, frames and sills on most buildings are therefore cleaned with the operator standing on the ground. For the majority of our work that means no ladders and no harnesses at all, which is the part commercial clients tend to care about most: no fall exposure, nothing leaned against your building and no access equipment parked across your bays. Where a job genuinely cannot be reached from below, we use rope access or an elevated work platform with proper fall protection.
The same system does both sides of our work. Office blocks, retail centres, showrooms and industrial buildings on the one hand, houses and estates on the other, and the identical pure water and pole setup is what we use on solar panels. One method, one team, whether we are washing a shopfront or recovering the output of a rooftop array.
Reach
Seventeen metres, standing on the ground
The carbon fibre poles telescope out to seventeen metres, which is roughly five storeys. On most buildings that covers every pane, every frame and every sill without a ladder, a harness or a cherry picker ever appearing on your property.
What we clean
- Residential solar arraysRoof mounted domestic PV cleaned from the ground where possible, with a visual condition check.
- Commercial & industrial arraysLarge rooftop and ground mount installations cleaned to a planned route and schedule.
- Building glass & façadesWindows, curtain walling, shopfronts, atriums and glass balustrades inside and out.
- High level glassMulti storey work by rope access or elevated work platform with the correct fall protection.
- Frames, sills & tracksAluminium frames, sills and sliding door tracks cleaned along with the glass, not around it.
- Signage & claddingFascias, signage, shopfront surrounds and cladding washed down at the same time as the glass.
- Post construction glassRemoval of cement splatter, plaster haze, silicone and protective film after a build or refit.
Commercial glass
We work while you trade
There is no scaffold to erect and no platform to park, so a shopfront or a showroom can be cleaned with the doors open and the bays still in use. Nothing is cordoned off and nobody is working above your customers.
How a clean is done
- Access & risk assessmentWe establish how the array or glass is reached safely and what fall protection, permits or platform is needed.
- Cool glass schedulingPanels are cleaned early or late. Cold water on hot glass is a thermal shock risk we do not take.
- Purified water washSoft brush agitation with deionised water, rinsed and left to dry spot free without chemicals.
- Condition checkWhile we are up there we note cracked glass, delamination, loose clamps, lifting seals and bird nesting.
- Report & scheduleYou receive before and after photographs, anything we found, and a recommended next clean date.
Suited to
- Homes and estates with rooftop PV
- Commercial and industrial rooftop arrays
- Office parks, retail centres and showrooms
- Body corporates with common area glass
- Sites near construction, mining or agriculture
- Buildings needing post construction glass cleaning
What pure water actually is
Municipal water carries dissolved calcium, magnesium and salts. They are invisible in the bucket and very visible on the glass, because when the water evaporates the minerals stay behind as spotting. Reverse osmosis forces the water through a membrane that removes most of them, and deionisation resin takes out what is left, down to close to zero. There is then nothing in the water to leave behind, so the glass dries clear on its own without anyone touching it with a cloth. It is also the method almost every solar panel manufacturer specifies, and it is gentler on the building: no chemicals running into your stormwater drains and nothing that voids a panel warranty.
Solar
Panels are rinsed, not scrubbed
Purified water and a soft brush, with no detergent and no pressure washer anywhere near the array. Abrasives and high pressure are what dull an antireflective coating and force water past the seals, which is the damage a clean is meant to prevent.
Common questions
How often should panels be cleaned?
Twice a year is the minimum on the KwaZulu Natal coast, and quarterly is the honest recommendation. Salt haze, humidity and the algal film that goes with them build up faster here than inland, and sites near the sea, cane fields, construction or heavy bird traffic soil quickest of all.
Will cleaning actually pay for itself?
On a reasonably sized array, usually yes. The generation you recover from clearing a season's soiling typically exceeds the cost of the clean, which is why commercial sites treat it as planned maintenance rather than a cosmetic job.
How is this different from a normal window cleaner?
Two things. The water goes through reverse osmosis and deionisation until there is effectively nothing dissolved in it, so it dries by itself without streaking and needs no detergent at all. And the work is done from the ground on carbon fibre poles that reach 17 metres, rather than off ladders, so for most jobs nobody needs a ladder or a harness and nobody is on your building. The finish is also more consistent, because nobody is wiping the glass by hand.
Do you walk on the panels?
No. Standing on modules causes micro cracks in the cells that you cannot see and that permanently reduce output. We work from poles, walkways or an approved platform.
Can you clean glass on a multi storey building?
Yes. Our carbon fibre poles reach 17 metres from the floor, which covers about five storeys without anyone leaving the ground. Above that we use rope access or an elevated work platform, with the method statement and fall protection that the height requires.
