I have been investigating many ways to cool solar panels, and at the same time cool my roof. I figured this would decrease cooling costs, increase array output by 5-10%, and extend the life of the panels and the roof. I live in Florida, usa, and we use a/c 6 months of the year, and the bills can be high. I have an array that greatly suffers from the Florida heat. I have been looking into using micro irrigation sprayers on the back surface of the solar panels, the water would then stream off onto the roof, thus cooling the roof and panels. I have run tests and know the roof misting gives me a net gain in savings, as I save about $30/mo. in cooling and only use $7 in water.
Couple of questions:
1. Is it ok to mist the back of these panels? It seems like it would be ok, since we get torrential rains that splatter water on the backs of all the outer perimeter panels.
2. If it is ok, since my panels are angled, should I just spray say the top half of each panel, and let the water flow down the rest of the panel?
Thank you.