How Your Solar System Works: A Guide for Owners

You do not need to be an engineer to understand your solar system, and knowing a little helps you to spot problems early and to talk to us about them. This guide explains the parts, the display and the alarms in plain words.

Key takeaways

• Panels make DC power, and the inverter turns it into AC for your home.
• The display or app shows power now, energy today and any alarms.
• An alarm is a message about what the inverter has seen, not always a fault in the inverter.
• Some checks are safe for owners; electrical work is not.

The parts

• Panels: make DC power from sunlight.
• Inverter: turns the DC into AC and connects the system to your home and the utility.
• Battery (if fitted): stores energy for use later or in a cut.
• Protection: breakers, isolators and surge devices that make it safe.
• Meter or monitoring: shows what the system makes.

Reading the display

Most inverters and apps show the power now, in watts or kilowatts, the energy made today and in total, and the state of the system: running, waiting, fault. Power is highest around midday on a clear day and zero at night, so do not worry about low figures in the morning or evening. A battery system also shows the battery level.

What alarms mean

An alarm tells you what the inverter has noticed, such as a grid fault, a high temperature or low insulation. Many alarms are temporary, such as a short utility fault that clears itself. If an alarm repeats or the system stays off, note the message and the time and contact us.

What owners can safely do

• Look at the display or the app each day or each week.
• Keep the area around the inverter clear and ventilated.
• Look at the panels from the ground for dirt, shade and damage.
• Keep a note of any alarms, with the time.

Do not open the inverter, touch cables or climb on the roof. For how we keep an eye on a system, see what our support team looks at.

When to call us

If you have a question about your system, our team is ready to help. Use the contact page or the quote page, see our technical support, or look at the inverters we supply.