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How to Get the Most from Your Solar Energy System

During the day, you can power your home or place of business with the electricity your solar panels produce. This electricity is available for immediate use or for storage in your battery for future usage. 

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You can utilize the electricity stored in your battery to power your house or place of business at night or during periods of poor solar generation. This means you have access to backup power, but it’s important to conserve the energy that’s stored if there’s a grid outage or your system isn’t connected to the electrical grid.* If the power is out in your area and overcast skies are forecasted, conserving energy means you’ll have energy for more days and/or hours.
 

* If your system includes a monitoring device (e.g.,automatically part of Tesla Powerwall batteries) you can (digitially) monitor how much energy your solar panels are producing and how much charge is in your batteries.

Tips on How to Conserve the Energy Produced and/or Stored by Your System:

  1. Turn off unnecessary air conditioning units and raise the temperature setting on those that need to run so they’re not working as hard. AC machines are one of the highest power using appliances. Where possible, use a fan instead of the AC.

  2. Turn off lights in unused rooms or lights that don’t need to be on during the day.

  3. Avoid opening the door of your refrigerator(s) unnecessarily. Each time the door is opened, the motor needs to run to re-cool the air inside. Refrigerators are also big users of energy. The same applies to freezers although they don't use as much energy.

  4. Avoid using unnecessary high-wattage appliances such as microwaves, electric ovens, space heaters, clothes dryers and hair dryers.

  5. If you have an electric water heater, another high energy user, consider turning it off during the grid outage or adjust the temperature so it doesn't heat water as high.

How to Maintain Your Solar Energy System:

Clean your solar panels on a regular basis since dust and other debris can reduce their productivity. How often depends on where you live, relative air quality, dust and pollution. For best results and to ensure that you don't scratch your solar panels in any way, simply use water and a soft, non-abrasive sponge or cloth to clean away dirt and debris. Like you would with glass windows or when washing your car, dry with a squeegee or chamois to avoid leaving residue behind

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