Dust accumulation monitors are provided to autonomously monitor dust accumulations. The dust accumulation monitors include a casing having a translucent portion, a light sensor configured to output a sensing signal based on sensed light penetrating through the translucent portion, a controller coupled to the light sensor to receive the sensing signal and configured to output a dust alert signal based on the received sensing signal, and a communication interface coupled to the controller and configured to output an alert based on the dust alert signal output by the controller. A dust accumulation monitoring system includes a plurality of dust accumulation monitors, and a central monitor communicatively connected to each of the plurality of dust accumulation monitors and configured to receive dust sensing signals from each of the plurality of dust accumulation monitors. The dust accumulation monitors may communicate through wired or wireless links with the central monitor.