Remember to Check Your Micro-inverter Monitors

Checking Micro-inverters

For our micro-inverter system owners, please remember to check your system monitors to ensure all solar panels and micro-inverters are operating.  You should be checking the monitor at least once per month.

It has happened where the solar circuit breaker in the main service panel was intentionally turned off by another contractor in order to carry out some home repair service. Unfortunately, the breaker was never turned back on and the homeowner was using utility power and not using power generated by her solar array for several months.  She became aware when the utility bill arrived and she was stuck with an $800 electrical bill at true-up time!

Its unusual to see a whole array fail to generate power and its because of some unusual situation, as described above.  We usually see the failure of one micro-inverter, not an entire array.  With these failures, we can replace them under the manufacturer’s warranty policy.

For Enphase Envoy owners, check the number in the lower right corner of the display.  This number should be equal to the number of panels installed on your array.

For SolarBridge owners, your Power Manager will display the total number of micro-inverters on the left side of the “home” screen.  In this example, you can see the total number connected is 26.

Both monitors will show the total number of functioning micro-inverters even if the connection to the Internet has failed.  In these situations, troubleshooting of the Internet connection needs to be carried out (and often cured through a reboot of the router),