How Do I Read a Solar Inverter Display?

Your solar inverter is one of the most important parts of your solar panel system, so it’s important to understand how it all works and how to monitor your equipment.

The information panel on your solar inverter is your go-to source when it comes to finding out how your panels are working and getting any necessary updates. That means it’s important that you get to know how this little square of data works and what information can be found inside.

Let’s start by looking at what solar inverters do and why you need to stay informed about yours.

What Is a Solar Inverter and What Does It Do?

When the energy from the sun reaches your solar panels, it passes through the cells and then into wires where it produces direct current (DC). In its current form, this cannot be used to power your household appliances since these require alternating current (AC).

Your solar inverter converts the DC output from your panels into AC so it can begin its task of powering your home. Without a solar inverter, there’s no way to harness the sun’s power for practical use, which makes it an essential part of your solar apparatus.

Why Do You Need to Read Your Solar Inverter?

Your solar inverter provides a useful window into the performance of your overall solar system. If you learn how to read it correctly — something which doesn’t take very long — it allows you to quickly identify any problems and irregularities with your solar panels, and gain insight into how efficiently your panels are working over time.

So how does it work?

How To Read a Solar Inverter Display

To fully understand the display panel on your solar inverter, there are a few key things to be aware of. Before long, checking your panel will become second nature, and staying up-to-date on the status of your solar panels will take just a few minutes here and there.

Get Familiar With Your Instruction Manual

Your solar system should come with a detailed manual explaining how everything works, and this document should also show you how your inverter display panel operates and what to look out for.

Solar systems and inverters come in many shapes and sizes, so take some time to familiarise yourself with your instruction manual. This will help you understand what error messages and all the other information on the screen mean. You probably won’t memorise all of it, so keep the manual in a safe place so you can refer to it when needed.

Check For Warning Lights and Error Codes

Your inverter display panel should be equipped with some warning lights, and some models will flash error codes and messages onto the screen. These warnings can notify you about problems like:

• Low power
• Battery warning
• Low DC voltage
• Difficulties in communication between the panels and inverter

…and much more. Keep in mind that a problem here may be an indication of another issue, such as damaged panels.

Look For Your Daily Total

One of the most important pieces of information on your solar display panel is called the daily total. This is a measure of how much energy your solar panel has produced this past day, and can vary based on conditions like the weather and time of year.

Keeping regular track of this figure will help you gain a better understanding of your solar panel system. For example, it will quickly highlight any problems and let you know when your panels aren’t performing normally. It’ll also help you get a better idea of which conditions your panels operate best in, so you can make plans around that.

Look For The Overall Total

The overall total figure shows you how much energy your panels have produced in total. You can use this to calculate an average daily figure, by dividing by the number of days your panels have been in use.

This can provide a more accurate understanding of how your panels are performing on average, compared to daily readings which can fluctuate quite a bit. It’s useful to know how much energy your panels are generating since you can then work out what percentage of your home energy needs are met by solar.

How SnapSolar Can Help

At SnapSolar, we help households and businesses in Mackay and the surrounding Queensland area set up and maintain their own solar panel systems. We can help you set up your inverter and get familiar with what every part of the display means, allowing you to run your solar panels in a more informed and efficient way.

Contact us to find out more and get started.