With your new solar panels, you’re now looking into the different ways to monitor your solar panels. There are many ways to check your solar panel energy levels. One reason you might want to start researching other methods is so that you know how much solar energy’s consumed, optimized, and generated.
Measuring Apps
Smartphones come in handy in every situation, especially with monitoring solar panels. The apps range from an inverter to a sun tracker. These apps help predict daily forecasts for solar energy. So, when you open each app, you can measure how much sun the panels pick up and produce energy.
Sometimes the apps pick up issues, such as the sun not giving enough energy. When this happens, go through your basic tasks of inspecting and cleaning. But if it’s due to natural causes, you need to adjust your panels further south so they can pick up more sunlight.
The other apps available to check your solar system include:
- Energy price comparison
- Inverter app
- Solar system provider’s app
- Specialized camera app
Solar Meter
Installing a solar meter is one method that helps track how much energy is created and used to power your home. When the panels are installed, a solar meter is placed alongside; this monitoring method measures your photovoltaic system kWh production.
The cool thing about this is that the meter moves by itself. When the meters detect enough energy created to power your home, it moves back, but then moves forward if not enough solar power is absorbed.
Internet Connection
When working inside a desktop or laptop, you’ll need an internet connection to track your solar panel’s energy production levels. While using an internet connection, your energy output data is transferred through a router to an online platform. From there, you can do all the tracking you’d do on an app from the comfort of a computer chair.
PC Connection
With many ways to connect data, the computer’s still useful for linking to your panel system. Connecting through a PC involves using a Bluetooth device that connects to the computer. Like the Internet connection, your data is streamlined to a specific program your inverter manufacturer issues you upon the solar panel installation.
It’s important to have multiple ways of checking your solar system panels. When there’s more than one monitoring method, it opens more opportunities to catch problems before they get worse. While learning the different ways to monitor your solar panels, you’ll start to enjoy more benefits from solar energy.
