Homeowners across Adelaide invest in solar systems for their properties for a number of reasons. For some, it’s to do with reducing their carbon footprint through greener energy sources, while for others it’s about cost savings. As the price of electricity continues to rise, having solar on your roof can really help to keep those power bills down.
But that’s only the case if your solar system is operating at peak efficiency. If it’s not, the longer that your solar system is under-performing or worse – not working at all – the more you’ll be relying on power from the grid.
As qualified and experienced electricians who are accredited in solar system repairs and maintenance, we have put together a checklist of things that you can run through to check on your system before you need to make the call to us:
Review your power bill
If you’ve noticed your power bill has been increasing a little, then it’s likely that your reliance on power from the grid has increased, which could mean that your solar system isn’t performing as well as it had previously.
We recommend checking your most recent power bill and comparing it to the previous bill, looking particularly at difference between your feed-in tariff and energy consumption.
If you are consuming more energy overall then this could be why your power bill has gone up. But if the consumption has remained effectively the same, then there may be an issue with your solar system.
It also pays to check whether or not your feed-in tariff has changed as this can impact your power bill as well.
Check your fuse box
If your solar system is showing zero output, it could possibly have turned off at your electrical switchboard. Sometimes a surge, glitch or overload can trip a fuse. Go to your switchboard and ensure that all switches are in the ‘on’ position.
Check your panels
The solar panels feed on direct sunlight, so if they are being obstructed in any way – that will impact the performance of your system. If you can, perform a visual inspection from the ground to check for tree foliage that could be blocking them, accumulated dust or debris, and/or vermin like mice or birds that may be nesting beneath them.
Check your solar inverter
The inverter is one of the single most important parts of your residential solar system as it is responsible for converting the energy generated from the solar panels (DC electricity), into the power that the electrical grid uses (AC electricity). There are a few things to take note of when looking at your solar inverter:
Check for Lights
Your solar system inverter has a series of lights that can either be flashing, glowing, pulsing, or be off altogether. These lights, and how they are working, are indicative of the operating state of your inverter.
Generally speaking, orange and red lights point towards an issue. Sometimes this issue is temporary (i.e. a software update is occurring), but other times it can mean that the system has switched to stand-by mode, that energy feeding into the grid has been switched off, or another ‘event’ has occurred.
If you notice a light on, before calling the C & R All Spark Electrical team, please take note of the colour of the light and whether it is steadily on, or flashing.
Error Codes
Some inverters also have the ability to display error codes on the screen, so if things aren’t working properly a code will appear and make it easier to troubleshoot the problem.
Different brands of inverter have different types of error codes, and this also means that they all have different meanings.
Before contacting the C & R All Spark Electrical team for solar repairs, please note down the brand of your inverter and the error code that it is displaying. Knowing the error code does not necessarily mean that we can fix the issue, but it really assists us with narrowing the likely problems down.
Need help troubleshooting your solar system?
If you’re experiencing issues with your residential solar system in Adelaide, we are here to help. Simply take note of your solar system model number, you will find this on the side or underneath the inverter normally.
You can phone our office on 08 8311 2529, or fill in our contact form here.
