Greening Your Home - Need to protet my solar panel

I have a 10 watt solar panel on my roof that powers an attic fan. The panel is about 10 x 16 inches. I want to put a piece of plexi glass on top of the panel to protect it from the occasional hail storm we get.

What I am not sure about is if I will be decreasing the amount of energy produced by the panel if I put sonmething on top of it. I was thinking of using clear.

If I am not able to do this, how can I protect my panel?

Thanks.

Solar panel construction varies.

While there is no specific North American code (that I am aware of) requiring the use of "hail-damage-tested" tempered glass in solar panels, there is a European standard that is being used by many solar panel manufacturers that does require "hail damage" testing - testing that is easily passed by simply using appropriate thickness tempered glass as the cover plate.

If your small panel has tempered glass that meets the Eruo code, then you should be fine without additional protection.

If you cover the panel with plastic (polycarbonate or acrylic (plexiglass) then you will potentially affect the perfomance.

I would suggest that you ask the folks that sold it to you if it meets code before I added/changed anything. If they don't know, then I would probably call the manufacturer of the panel and ask them.

I suppose you should ask manufacturer before doing something.