Having an issue with your solar system?

Inverters use a colour code: green is normal, orange or blinking usually means a warning, red means the unit has stopped. Most brands also show a fault code on the screen or in the app.

Check: note the exact colour, the blink pattern and any code on the display, and send us a photo. That alone often tells us which part to bring.

Cloud cover, dust, pollen and salt from the coast all cut output, and shade from a new tree or aerial can knock out a whole string. A real fault usually shows as a sudden drop rather than a gradual one.

Check: compare this month with the same month last year rather than with last month, and look for new shade or visible dirt on the panels.

After an outage the inverter waits for a stable grid signal before restarting, which can take a few minutes. If a breaker tripped during the cut, it will not restart at all until that is reset.

Check: the AC and DC breakers in your consumer unit and the isolator next to the inverter. If everything is switched on and the screen stays dark, call us.

Batteries hold a reserve and stop discharging at their minimum charge level, so a battery sitting at 10 percent is often behaving exactly as designed. Very high or very low temperatures also pause charging.

Check: your app settings for reserve level and any time-of-use schedule. Also check that the battery is switched on — the isolation switch may have been turned off. If the battery has been at zero for more than a day, treat it as a fault.

Water marks near a roof penetration, a loose panel or mount after a storm, and buzzing or burning smells from the inverter are not things to keep an eye on. They need a visit.

Do this: switch the system off at the AC isolator if it is safe to reach, then call the service line rather than using the form.