Solar Monitoring
How to Read Your Solar Monitoring App
Every grid-connected solar system installed in Australia in the last decade comes with monitoring built in. A 6.6kW system in Penrith should average around 26 kWh on a typical day, closer to 35 kWh in midsummer and around 17 kWh in the depths of winter. If your app is showing roughly that, nothing is wrong.
The problem is that almost nobody is shown how to read it, so the app either goes unopened for years or gets checked once in June and panics somebody.
This page covers what your system should actually be producing, how to get into your monitoring whatever brand you’ve got, and how to tell the difference between a seasonal dip, a dirty roof and a genuine fault.
26 kWh
AVERAGE DAY, 6.6KW SYSTEM IN PENRITH
2x
SUMMER OUTPUT VS MIDWINTER
HALF
OF “SYSTEM DOWN” CALLS ARE JUST THE WI-FI
3,000+
LOCAL SYSTEMS ON OUR MONITORING FLEET
What Your System Should Be Producing
These are the figures for a north-facing, unshaded array around Penrith, Emu Plains and the lower Blue Mountains, on a clear day.
| System size | Midsummer day Dec – Jan | Spring / autumn day Mar – Apr, Sep – Oct | Midwinter day Jun – Jul | Over a year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 kW | about 27 kWh | about 20 kWh | about 13 kWh | 7,143 kWh |
| 6.6 kW | about 35 kWh | about 26 kWh | about 17 kWh | 9,430 kWh |
| 10 kW | about 53 kWh | about 39 kWh | about 25 kWh | 14,287 kWh |
| 13 kW | about 69 kWh | about 51 kWh | about 33 kWh | 18,574 kWh |
Annual figures based on our output calculator for our region. Daily figures assume clear weather, a clean north-facing array and no shading.
Three things this table doesn’t account for, and they matter.
Orientation. An east-west split array will produce roughly 10–15% less across the year than the same panels facing north, but the output is spread wider through the day — which often suits a household better. Lower total, more useful shape.
Shade. Up the Mountains, canopy shading can pull real-world output well below these numbers, particularly on winter mornings when the sun is low and the trees are in the way. If you’re under established gums, expect less and don’t panic about it.
Weather. A run of overcast days will halve your output, and that’s normal. Judge your system on a month against the same month last year, never on a single bad day.
The Half of the Picture Most People Are Missing
Standard inverter monitoring shows you generation only, what your panels made. It cannot see what your house used, or how much went back to the grid. Most people don’t realise this until they’re trying to work out why a bill went up.
Why it’s worth having:
- It tells you why the bill moved. Output steady but bills up means your usage changed, not your system. Without consumption data you’re guessing.
- It’s the only honest way to size a battery. You can’t work out how much storage you need without knowing your evening load and how much you currently export. Anyone sizing a battery off your generation figures alone is guessing.
- It finds waste. A constant overnight baseload is usually something running that doesn’t need to. We’ve found pool pumps on 24 hours, failed hot water thermostats and second fridges nobody remembered owning.
- It shows you when to run things. Once you can see the midday surplus, shifting the dishwasher, washing machine and pool pump into it stops being guesswork.
Reading the Shape of the Day
A healthy solar day is a smooth arch. Output climbs from sunrise, peaks around solar noon, and tapers off to nothing at sunset. Cloud puts sharp notches in it, and that’s fine — clouds are not a fault.
What matters is the shape, not the height. These are the patterns worth knowing.
| What the graph does | What it usually means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Smooth arch, lower than summer | Winter. Shorter days and a lower sun angle roughly halve output between January and July. | Nothing. This is the system working correctly. |
| Flat top, clipped off square | The inverter has hit its rated output. Normal on an oversized array — most systems are deliberately built with more panel capacity than inverter capacity. | Normal in short bursts. Worth a conversation if it’s clipping for hours a day, every day. |
| Sawtooth — climbs, drops to zero, climbs again | Grid over-voltage. The inverter is shutting down to protect itself when network voltage climbs too high, then restarting. Common on long feeders through the Mountains. | Read the Fronius, Sungrow or SolarEdge guide. The fix often sits with Endeavour Energy, and we’ll log it. |
| Sudden step down, same amount every day | A string has gone offline, or a panel or optimiser has failed. If output dropped by roughly a third overnight and stayed there, one of three strings is out. | Book a service call. This one won’t fix itself. |
| One panel flatlined | Only visible on Enphase or SolarEdge systems. A failed micro inverter or optimiser, or a loose connector. Often it’s the connector. | Book a service call. Tell us which panel and we’ll bring the right part. |
| Slow decline over months and years | Soiling, or trees that have grown. Panels degrade genuinely, but only by around half a percent a year — nowhere near fast enough to notice. | Worth a health check. Usually it’s dirt or canopy, not the panels. |
| Starts late, finishes early | Shading at the ends of the day — trees, a neighbour’s roof, or terrain. It gets worse each winter as the sun sits lower. | Compare against the same week last year. If the window has narrowed, something has grown. |
| Nothing at all, but the house is fine | Almost always the monitoring connection, not the system. Your panels are generating and your bill is still coming down — you just can’t see it. | Reconnect the Wi-Fi using your brand’s guide above before booking anything. |
We Watch Our Systems Too
Every system we install stays on our monitoring fleet after handover. That means firmware updates applied remotely, and performance visible to us as well as to you.
In practice it means we often see a fault before the homeowner does. A string dropping offline, an optimiser going quiet, an inverter starting to log errors it hasn’t yet acted on — these show up in the fleet view well before anyone notices a change in their bill.
It’s also why a photo of your inverter screen is worth sending us even if you’re not sure anything’s wrong. We can usually tell you in a message whether it’s a fault, a grid event or nothing at all.
If your system was installed by someone else, we can add it to the fleet as part of a system health check and take over the watching.
Solar Monitoring Questions
Does my solar system come with monitoring?
Almost certainly, yes. Every grid-connected system installed in Australia over the last decade includes monitoring through the inverter manufacturer — Fronius Solar.web, Sungrow iSolarCloud, SolarEdge mySolarEdge, the Enphase App, the Tesla app, and so on. What often didn’t happen is anyone setting up your account and showing you how to use it. That can be sorted after the fact, including on systems we didn’t install.
How can I monitor my solar system?
Through your inverter manufacturer’s app or web portal. Find the brand name on the front of your inverter, download that brand’s app, and register using the serial number on the unit’s label. If the system was registered under an installer’s account you may need that transferred into your name first — we do that regularly.
How much should my solar system be producing each day?
Around Penrith and the lower Blue Mountains, a north-facing unshaded 6.6kW system averages about 26 kWh a day across the year — roughly 35 kWh on a clear midsummer day and about 17 kWh in midwinter. A 10kW system runs about 39 kWh a day on average. See the table above for other sizes. Shading, east-west orientation and weather all move these figures, so always compare a full month against the same month last year rather than judging a single day.
Why has my solar output dropped?
Season is the most common answer, output roughly halves between January and July, and that’s normal. Beyond that, a slow decline over months usually means soiling or trees that have grown, while a sudden step down that holds at the same lower level every day usually means a string has gone offline or a panel has failed. A sawtooth pattern where output drops to zero and recovers repeatedly is generally grid over-voltage rather than a fault in your equipment.
My monitoring shows zero. Has my system stopped working?
Usually not. About half the “system down” calls we take turn out to be the monitoring connection rather than the system, most often after a new router, a changed Wi-Fi password or an NBN changeover. Your panels keep generating throughout. Check whether your inverter’s display still shows output, if it does, it’s the Wi-Fi, and the brand guides above will get you reconnected.
Can I see how much each panel is producing?
Only on systems with panel-level electronics. Enphase micro inverter and SolarEdge optimiser systems report each panel individually, which makes finding a single underperforming panel straightforward. A conventional string inverter reports the array as a whole, or by string at best, so a single bad panel is much harder to isolate.
I've lost my monitoring login and my installer has closed down. What now?
This is one of the most common calls we get. The monitoring account sits with the inverter manufacturer, not the installer, so it survives the company closing. In most cases we can recover or re-register the system and hand the account to you in your own name.
Do solar panels lose output as they age?
Yes, but slowly, typically around half a percent a year, which is far too gradual to notice in an app. If you’re seeing a real decline over a year or two, it’s very unlikely to be panel degradation. Dirt, canopy growth or a failed component are all far more probable.
Not Sure What You're Looking At?
Screenshot your monitoring graph and send it to us. We’ll tell you whether it’s a fault, a grid event, the weather, or nothing at all.
Or call 02 4703 5411 — you’ll get one of our own electricians, not a call centre.
