So you’ve invested a few thousand dollars in a solar system for your RV, but it still might not include a solar monitoring system. Ask any solar expert, and they’d urge you to get one if you want to get the most out of your solar system investment. Solar monitoring systems help you measure energy consumption, solar electricity production, battery charge and discharge power, ensuring everything works optimally at all times.

Typically, the solar monitoring system will provide you with all of this data every couple of seconds. You’ll be able to log in online where you can see different graphs and numbers that give you an idea of how your system is performing. If you’re a data freak like myself, you’ll be drooling over the graphs and numbers. If you aren’t a fan, though, it won’t be as impressive, but you should still get the monitoring system for the following reasons.

Get Notified When the System Trips Off

Even if you never look at the dashboard of the monitoring system, you’ll get an alert as soon as something goes wrong with your solar system. If you have solar at home, you probably save about $500 per quarter, or more. And since most people get their bills on a quarterly basis, should your inverter have an error and shut down, you probably won’t notice for a month or two, until you get your bill.

You probably know, your solar system just sits there and works. If it stops working for any reason, the grid will automatically step in and give you the power instead of your solar panels, and you won’t know until you get your bill. This can happen more often than you’d think, and there won’t be anyone else to blame. A solar monitoring system will give you an email or even an SMS a few days after the system goes down. You can then get in touch with your installed to get it back online.

Get Notified if Panel Performance Drops

Panels can come with a performance guarantee for as long as 25 years or even more. But how do you keep track of their performance so you know whether that’s true or not? A solar panel monitoring system, of course. These systems give you all the data about the performance of your panels, and can alert you in the event of performance degradation. A solar panel monitoring system is more sophisticated than a conventional system that only tells you if the system has tripped off. If you’re paying thousands of dollars for the panels, it would only make sense that you want to get the most out of them, for as long as possible.

Get Notified if Inverter Performance Drops

The efficiency of your inverter plays a huge role in the efficiency of your entire system. If the performance drops, so do your savings. A good solar monitoring system will let you know if your inverter experiences any issues so you can get it repaired or replaced immediately. Some inverters feature built-in monitoring, but having a 3rd party monitoring system will keep your inverter manufacturer honest. Some manufacturers may claim that there’s nothing wrong with the inverter, and it can be difficult to prove otherwise.

Improved Overall Safety

Since you’re effectively turning your home or RV into a distributed power station, the consequences of electrical faults can be disastrous. Power stations have a wide range of monitoring systems that notify operators of faults that can be early indications of equipment failure. So, why shouldn’t your home or RV have similar protection? A monitoring system can detect all types of fault conditions using algorithms. These conditions can be warnings that something is nearing failure. For instance, a fault can be detected in the panels, which may be a precursor to panel breakdown, which can lead to high DC voltage arcing, resulting in roof fire.

Think of a solar monitoring system as insurance for your solar investment. Paying a few hundred dollars in advance can save you thousands of dollars down the line.

Improved Energy Efficiency

The main reason you got a solar system in the first place is to improve your home’s energy efficiency and reduce your energy bill. The insights solar monitoring systems provide do just that. For instance, your “always on” energy is the minimum energy your house draws from the grid, which is probably in the middle of the night. That’s the level of energy consumption that you never go under. The number will tell you how big your “standby loads” are, so you can figure out which appliances draw power even when you don’t use them. Moreover, you can figure out which devices you can start using in the day so they can take advantage of the solar power you draw rather than the grid power, thus increasing your self-consumption ratio.