Solar & Battery Service & Checks
Is your solar system working for you or against you?
A lot of homeowners are met with salespeople who promise one thing yet deliver something different, or the performance is lower than expected. This is a common, unfortunate reality for many solar installations in today’s market.
Solar & Battery Check - What will this entail?
We will check and tell you if your solar or battery is working correctly or not at all; and if it is, to what level of efficiency it is roughly achieving.
If it is below par, there are sometimes optimisation options that can be done to lift the production output, countering potentially high power bills. If it isn’t working at all, this can be due to any of the following: a failed inverter, a faulty rooftop isolator or wiring connection, or failed panel/s.
You may be eligible for a free Inverter under warranty
A common and critical part to fail is the inverter, which results in no solar production at all. This is often caused by an earth fault or power surges. Most inverters come with either a 5 or 10-year warranty. So as long as the commissioning date is within that period, more often than not, manufacturers will honour a warranty request so long as it is not proven to be at fault of the installation itself.
The original company/installer does not need to do the warranty application at all; any electrical or solar company can successfully obtain and carry out the inverter replacement. If successful, the sole cost of the inverter itself would be at no charge to the property owner; only the applicable labour to replace the item.
If you are unsure if your system is still under warranty, or would like clarification with the above process, simply call us anytime for free advice and help.
We will be more than happy to assist you.
Consumption Monitoring & Export Limiting
Want to know what you can run without it drawing power from the grid?
If you want to be able to monitor from your phone, your real-time power usage, a consumption/export meter (sometimes known as a smart meter) will enable you to do this. Generally, when your new solar system is added to your home, your installer will set you up with Wi-Fi monitoring on your phone. This is in the form of an app, tailored and specific to the type of inverter you have. It lets you see, in real time, the solar production from your system.
There are many consumption meters available that are compatible with various types of inverters; this would then integrate into your existing solar monitoring platform, thus letting you see what you are producing and also what you are using, simultaneously. Now you can run your air con, heater, spa, or pool with confidence that you are maximising the comfort and economic benefits from your solar and battery.
These meters also enable you to set an export limit to your inverter, meaning that you can opt not to send any excess power that you have generated back into the grid.
Run Your Hot Water from your Solar
Your hot water system will typically be wired and measured at an off-peak tariff. This is often represented on your bill as a ‘controlled load’. Being wired in an off-peak setup means it will never heat up using power generated from your solar or battery. Sometimes you may find that it will run out, leaving you without hot water, or after you get solar installed, you are still being charged for additional electricity.
If your hot water system is electric and you have a solar system installed, it can be very beneficial to remove it from off-peak and configure it to run from the solar/battery system through the use of a timer and contactor (for solar-only setups) or simply re-wire to a new switch (for solar and battery setups)
