It may be a solar panel that has fallen on your floor, a carpet cleaner or a cleaning product that you bought online, but the way it’s cleaned can be as important as its original purpose.
A new study by researchers at Cornell University shows that cleaning products can be used to remove some of the dirt and debris that builds up on solar panels and other surfaces when they are used regularly.
A team of Cornell researchers found that dust from solar panels was less likely to build up than dust from other products, such as cleaners and carpet cleaners, when compared with products that were used only a few times a year.
The researchers analysed the dust left behind by a variety of solar panels over time.
They found that a cleaner like vinegar was more effective at removing some of this dirt and dust than a cleaning foam or toothpaste.
The study was published online in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.
“This study provides some evidence that there is an inherent difference between cleaning and cleaning products that is due to their duration and frequency,” said lead author Andrew N. Dolan, a professor of environmental chemistry and biochemistry in the College of Arts & Sciences at Cornell.
“In addition, it shows that it is possible to use the cleaning products on a daily basis without damaging the solar panel, even though they may have some sort of negative impact on the overall health of the solar panels.”
The study involved dust samples collected over a year at various locations in New York City.
Dolan said he wanted to know if dust from the solar product was being lost from solar panel surfaces when it was used.
“What we found was that there was some dust left, but it was less than we expected, and we didn’t see the dust that was coming from cleaning products,” he said.
“When we compared dust that came from cleaning product to dust that comes from the product itself, it was very similar.”
Dolan and his colleagues analysed the results of two separate studies.
In one study, they looked at dust samples that had been collected at the same location over a two-year period.
In the other, they examined dust samples from the same locations at different times.
“We wanted to see if we could identify different types of dust that is coming from the two types of cleaning products, and if we can do that, then we could actually identify which products are more likely to have a positive impact on human health,” Dolan said.
Dry cleaning products such as vinegar, a commercial product known for its use in home cleaning, were found to be much more effective than cleaning foam, which is typically used to clean carpets and other household surfaces.
“They are the ones that we see, and that’s actually a pretty big difference between the products,” Dizon said.
“It’s a big difference.”
It’s actually more beneficial to use vinegar than it is to use a cleaning or carpet cleaner.
The Cornell team found that vinegar, for example, was a much more efficient cleaner than other cleaners, but not necessarily because it’s a better cleaner.
“Bridging the gap between the two cleaning products is important.
It’s not just vinegar, it’s vinegar and the same cleaning product.”
You need a good, consistent, long-term clean,” he added.”
And you need to do it right, because it is much more harmful than it seems.
“According to the researchers, the amount of dust from cleaning and carpet cleaner products was similar to that of dust collected from other surfaces, and dust from cleaners was not significantly different from dust from products that had never been used.
However, it is important to remember that the dust from a solar product is much smaller than that of the cleaning product, so it is difficult to predict how long it will be.”
As long as you’re doing it consistently, you don’t need to worry about the dust, but if you are constantly changing products and adding new products, it becomes a big concern,” Doman said.
The research was funded by the US National Science Foundation, the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme, the US Department of Energy, the Cornell Cooperative Research Initiative, the University of Chicago and the Department of Physics, Technology & Engineering, Cornell University.