FITNESS ~ PERFORMANCE ~ ENDURANCE terms you are likely hearing very often now the 2016 Olympic Games have started.
These are also terms you should be asking yourself if you are one of the 1.5 million Australian households or small businesses who have installed rooftop solar.
Spending thousands of dollars into an investment relying on getting hundreds to thousands of dollars in return each year needs your attention. Like any piece of technology, monitoring is crucial to ensure the performance is at its full potential, and this means a solar system is no different.
Being aware of your solar performance through a monitoring system will enable you to see real time data your system is generating. This will help you plan your household or business’s energy consuming tasks as well as flag with you at an early stage of any issues your system may be experiencing.
Solar performance monitoring will help you optimise your system and make your solar investment work hard for you.
Why this is important?
Many of our clients ask how they can track their solar performance and know exactly how much energy their system is generating, essentially wanting to know how much in dollar value are they saving from having a solar system on their roof.
By monitoring your solar system’s performance you can keep abreast of your energy usage and issues. Performance issues can significantly effect your potential financial gains and environmental impact your system is capable of.
Monitoring systems can help flag potential issues which can be quickly fixed to get you back on track. Some issues which you may notice from your monitoring system all of which will effect the energy input may be form:
- Isolated faulty parts of the system
- Faulty installation
- Wear and tear of the panels
- Obstruction of panel exposure by fallen leaves/branches
- Build up of sediment on panels preventing complete sun exposure
How can solar performance monitoring help me?
Knowing your solar systems inflow of energy can assist you in optimising the potential of your system, with this most commonly relating to financial and environmental benefits.
Image curtesy of Enphase Enlighten
Solar performance can be easily monitored from smart technology, this can include you sitting on the couch at night and reviewing how your solar performed during the day. Monitoring systems are not designed to make life harder, they collate high tech information and consolidate this into a dashboard for your ease of reference and review.
How do I have a monitoring system installed?
Solar performance monitoring should not be seen as a “add on”. Knowing your real time data will help you reduce your energy consumption, optimise your solar performance and alert you when things are not working as efficiently as they should. Essentially solar monitoring will help to make your system work harder for you.
You have saved money, invested for a return and spent time in arranging for the installation of a solar system at your home or workplace. Solar monitoring will help you to ensure all your effort is worthwhile.
There are many solar monitoring systems on the market, and as independent solar installers we use and recommend preferred systems however have no business relationship with any suppliers. This gives us the edge of being able to offer you a non-bias view of what would work best for your system and situation.
Connect with us to hear about what monitoring system would work best for you.
