Guide
The solar has stopped. Now what
Before anyone is called out, there is a short list of things worth establishing — all of it from an app or a window. The most useful question is the first one, and it isn't the one most people ask.
Start by working out whether the system has stopped producing or the monitoring has stopped reporting, because they look identical in an app and they are completely different problems. A dead router, a changed Wi-Fi password or a failed gateway will show you a flat line from a system that is generating perfectly well. Check the meter or the bill before assuming the worst. After that: look at the pattern of the loss, note any fault indication, gather the evidence — and stop before you touch anything.
Is it the system, or is it the reporting
This single distinction saves more unnecessary service calls than everything else on this page put together.
| Monitoring or communications failure | Actual production failure | |
|---|---|---|
| What the app shows | Flat line, gaps, "offline", or data that stops on a specific date | Production present but lower, or falling off at particular times of day |
| What the meter or bill shows | Normal solar offset — the system is still generating | Import has genuinely risen; you are buying more power |
| Common causes | Router replaced, Wi-Fi password changed, gateway unplugged, ISP change, monitoring account closed or never transferred | A string offline, a failed optimizer or microinverter, inverter fault, new shading, soiling, or a tripped breaker |
| Urgency | Not an emergency, but fix it — an unmonitored system hides the next fault | Worth attention now; every week is measurable production |
| Who to call | Whoever holds the monitoring account, or your internet provider first | A licensed solar contractor — or an independent inspection if you want to know what is wrong before you get a quote |
What the pattern of the loss tells you
You don't need a meter to narrow this down. You need the graph you already have.
- Everything stopped on one date
- Points at a single event — a fault, a trip, a disconnection, a communications failure. Look at what else happened that week: a power cut, work on the house, a new router, a storm.
- A step down that then held steady
- Classic partial failure. One string, one optimizer or one microinverter has dropped out and the rest carries on. Usually invisible without module-level reporting, and often runs for years.
- Lower every day, gradually
- Soiling, growing shade, or genuine degradation. Compare the same month across years rather than month against last month — solar output is supposed to fall in November.
- Fine in the morning, drops midday
- Often heat-related derating or a ventilation problem at the inverter. It is also what a partially shaded string can look like as the sun moves.
- Fine some days, nothing on others
- Intermittent fault or an intermittent communications link. The inverter's recorded fault history is what settles it — the app usually won't.
Where do-it-yourself ends
A solar array is a live electrical generation source. It produces DC voltage whenever daylight falls on it, and it cannot be turned off at a breaker the way the rest of the house can. That is why this page tells you to look at graphs and not at hardware.
Don't go on the roof, open the inverter or any enclosure, remove covers, disconnect or reconnect anything, operate the DC disconnect to "try a reset", take a reading with a meter, or clean panels from a ladder. Every one of those is a real way people are injured, and the last one is the one that surprises people.
Do call somebody straight away — and not us first — if you see scorching, melted plastic, an exposed or damaged conductor, water in an enclosure, or you smell burning. If anything is actively smoking or arcing, that is the fire service, not a scheduling question.
What to have ready before you call anyone
The same list whether you are calling the installer, the lease provider or us. It is the difference between a diagnosis and a guessing game.
The production history, as screenshots
Twelve months, thirty days, and the day it changed. Whatever the app will give you.
The exact fault text
Photograph the screen or the status light. "There's an error" and "Isolation fault 0x38" are different amounts of help.
When it started and what else happened
A power cut, a storm, roof work, a new router, a remodel, a tree that has got taller. Timing is evidence.
Who owns the system and who services it
Owned, financed, leased or PPA — and the servicer's name from the most recent statement. It decides who is even allowed to work on it.
The equipment and the paperwork
Inverter make and model from the data plate, the original agreement, and the monitoring login if you have it.
Common questions
My solar stopped and the installer is out of business. Who fixes it?
Somebody can, and the equipment warranties may well still be live even though the installer isn't — manufacturer warranties sit with the manufacturer, not the company that fitted it. Workmanship warranties are the ones that usually die with the installer. We wrote about how to work out who to chase.
Is a production drop always a fault?
No, and this is worth saying plainly. Output is supposed to vary with season, weather and temperature, and a panel array loses a small amount of output per year as a normal characteristic. Compare like with like — this April against last April — before concluding anything is wrong.
Can you fix it?
No. We inspect solar and we don't sell repairs, which is exactly why our finding about what's wrong isn't influenced by who profits from fixing it. We'll identify what we found, explain it in terms you can hand to a contractor, and help you make sense of the quotes that come back.
Should I get it inspected or just call a solar company?
If you know who installed it, they are under warranty, and they will come out — call them; that is the cheapest path and often the right one. An independent inspection earns its fee when the installer is gone, when you have been given a quote you don't trust, when you are buying or selling the house, or when two companies have told you two different things.
Working a weekend transaction? So are we
The office is open Monday–Friday 9am–6pm, but inspections run on weekends and requests are open around the clock. We'll call to confirm the date and time.
Requesting an inspection isn't a confirmed appointment — we'll contact you to confirm timing.