how can i monitor my solar panels
In order to monitor, check and observe the status of your solar panel system, solar inverter manufacturers offer a free to download and use, monitoring platform. That is available to users via an online platform, mobile app or both. Each brand of inverter offers a slight variation of a monitoring platform, however, the basic features of solar panel monitoring include:
- Real-time power generation.
- Historical Generation and Performance Data
- And Details of your system
What are the benefits of using Solar Panel Monitoring
Having access to your solar monitoring comes with several benefits including:
- Remote access to real-time data, including your generation, usage and exported energy
- Being able to set your batteries to force charge from off-peak tariffs
- Being able to review and compare past performance data, and generate reports.
- And able to detect faults and issues through sudden drops in performance.
- Helps homeowners to optimise their energy usage
- Email alerts for quick notifications regarding updates and potential system faults.
how does solar monitoring work
As the inverter is the brains of your solar PV system, it should be no surprise that the data comes directly from your system’s inverter. This is because both your solar panels and battery storage are wired directly to your inverter. In order to provide this data to the user, an internet connection is required, along with a dongle connected directly into your system’s inverter. A wifi dongle will act as a modem to provide your solar inverter with internet access or enhance the existing connection.
Many manufacturers also offer access to your system’s data via an API, which may be useful if you want to custom-code displays or integrate solar with a smart home.
best solar monitoring system uk
Each and every monitoring platform comes with slight variations and different features. Som even comes with paid upgrades, and the ability to access your system data via an API key. But which solar monitoring is the best?
If you would like to gain more insight into how solar monitoring works, why not head over to our youtube channel @deegesolar, where our head of technical Temi, has some tutorials for each monitoring platform for beginners.
Dashboard comparison
To get a brief overview of how each solar PV monitoring platform looks, scroll through the images above. You may notice we have provided some award badges to our favourite monitoring platforms.
The table below shows the notable features for the best solar brands here in the UK, and even gives you the option to view a demo.
| Brand | Eco System | Usability | API | Demo/Tutorial | Notable Features |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | - | 3/5 | Demo | Force Charging Available | |
 | - | 3/5 | Yes | Tutorial | Force Charging Available Works with Tigo Optimisers |
 | Yes | 4/5 | Yes | Demo | Force Charging Available Works With Octopus Energy |
 | Yes | 4/5 | Yes | Demo | Shows Complete Ecosystem Can set charging priority |
 | Yes | 4/5 | Yes | Demo | Force Charging Available Module-Level Monitoring |
 | Yes | 3/5 | Yes | Demo | Force Charging Available Powercut Mode Available Works with Agile Tariffs Can set charging pirority |
 | - | 3/5 | - | Demo | Force Charging Available |
 | - | 3/5 | Yes | Demo | Force Charging Available |
 | - | 3/5 | Yes | Unavailable | Force Charging Available Works with Octopus |
 | Yes | 4/5 | - | Unavailable | Force Charging Available Vehicle Charging During Power Outage |
 | Yes | 4/5 | Yes | Unavailable | Force Charging Available Module-Level Monitoring Contact Enphase Support |
So Which Brand offers the best solar monitoring?
Ultimately, Solar panel monitoring is an excellent additional feature, included in your solar PV system. Used correctly, you can maximise your savings, gain an in-depth understanding of your energy usage and learn how to shift your usage to match your generation. What is also great about monitoring apps, is that they are forever evolving, upgrading and advancing over time. As for which solar monitoring platform is the best, it really depends on how much you will be using your app and what you will be using it for in particular. The overall feedback from our customers if that it is addictive! So you may be surprised how much you’ll be checking your monitoring.
