Getting Help With a Solar Problem

Some of what looks like a fault is not one, and some of it is a five minute fix. Here is how to tell the difference, and what to have ready if it does need a technician.

Free to read. No account needed.

AllSolar Energy technicians working on a rooftop solar installation.
Roof work is a professional visit. Everything you can safely check yourself is on the ground or indoors.

What you can safely check yourself

  • Breakers and disconnects. A tripped alternating current breaker at the inverter or the main panel is common and easy to see.
  • The inverter display or indicator light. Photograph any code or indicator color before touching anything.
  • Your home network, if the complaint is that monitoring went blank.
  • For pool heating: the filter, the pump basket and the pump schedule.
  • For water heating: whether the backup element has quietly taken over, which usually shows in your electricity bill rather than at the tap.
  • For a battery: whether it is charging, and what the app or display is reporting.
Do not go on the roof, do not open an inverter or a battery enclosure, and do not repeatedly reset a breaker that keeps tripping. The direct current side of a solar array is live in daylight and cannot be turned off with a switch.

What a diagnostic visit is

A diagnostic visit is a technician establishing what is actually wrong and what it takes to fix it. On a solar system that is rarely obvious from the ground, and a guess made over the phone tends to arrive with the wrong parts.

You should expect to be told what was found, what is recommended, and what it costs, before any repair work is authorized.

What to have ready

  • The address and, if you know it, roughly when the system was installed.
  • Equipment makes and models, or a photograph of the labels.
  • What the symptom is and when it started.
  • A photograph of any error code, warning light or app screen.
  • Whether anything changed recently: a new roof, a new router, storm damage, other trades on site.

Where AllSolar works

The education on this site is written for Florida solar owners generally. Onsite service is a different question: AllSolar Energy serves 17 counties across Central, East and West Central Florida, and service availability varies by location.

If you are outside that area, the guidance here still applies and is still free to use, and a Solar Home record is still worth building for whoever does end up working on your system.

Common questions

Will you work on a system your company did not install?
Yes. A large part of what we do is service on systems installed by other companies, including companies that no longer exist.
Do I need a membership to get service?
No. A membership is a care program, not a requirement. Anyone can request service.
How quickly can somebody come out?
That depends on the work, the parts and where you are. We would rather give you a date we can keep than a date that sounds good on a website.

On allsolarenergy.com

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