How To Tell If Your Solar Panels Are Working Properly

Monitor your solar system s performance see your energy usage in real time audit your power bills.

How to tell if your solar panels are working properly.

How do i detect if my panels are working properly. A red or orange light during daylight hours means there s a system event or fault. If your panels have been up for a while you might be able to tell easily by looking at your electric bill whether your system is producing but if you ve just had panels installed you ll have to go by estimates provided by your installer or you can take a look at our handy calculator to see how much energy your panels should be producing. When it s overcast your solar panels will likely operate at 10 to 25 of their rated capacity.

The inverter is the first place to check to make sure your solar energy system is working properly. Home owners can measure not only how much energy your system is generating on any given day but how much more energy it should be generating and what you can do to improve it. Check this during the day when your system should be generating and if it is lit you may have a problem with a part of your solar system. While solar panels work on cloudy and rainy days their output won t match that on clear sunny days.

Because arizona is one of the sunniest states in the nation it makes sense to harness the natural and reliable power resource. Most generation meters will have some sort of indication light that will let you know instantly if your system is not functioning correctly. What matters is how much sun your home gets year round. There are two types of inverters string inverters and micro inverters.

Your inverter makes the direct current dc produced by your solar panels useable as alternating current ac for your home. The tell tale sign of string inverters is their size. You will want to ensure that you place the positive to positive and negative to negative when attaching your multimeter to the connection on the back of your solar panel. A green light on your inverter means your system is functioning properly.

A simple health check is to look at the colour of the lights shining on the box during daylight hours when the system s meant to be running. Solar electricity in scottsdale az is a great option. The easiest way to determine which type of inverter you have is to check the paperwork from your solar provider. But don t get stuck on this detail.

Without getting on the roof and actually looking at your panels the easiest way to know if your solar panels are working properly and at their most efficient is with reposit smart solar monitoring. As most solar panels are 12 volts the solar panel test methods are basically the same. If you re new to having solar panels on your property you might be wondering how you can tell if they re working properly. 24 7 real time monitoring the solar analytics smart monitor keeps track of your solar energy system s performance in real time live five second data and measures against a number of benchmarks including local weather data.