An Australian consumer group wrote that in 2020, they performed a survey of over 1000 solar owners and found that 33% of them had experienced problems with their system. Furthermore, 21% had no idea whether their solar system was working or not. Issues in your solar array can mean a serious downturn in energy production, which means a serious downturn in energy bill savings. Each time your solar array fails to produce enough energy for your home (for instance, at night when the sun has gone away) the energy company provides you with the needed energy.

This usually works out in your favor since your solar array produces extra energy during the day, which is sold to the power companies to use elsewhere. At night, you “buy” energy back from the companies, which means at worst you break even (if not profit). However, a number of factors can diminish the amount you produce during the day, which affects how much you sell to the power companies (For instance, broken or dirty cells). Things can even get so bad that you produce a net NEGATIVE amount of energy since you might use more than you are producing. Energy companies have absolutely no incentive to tell you that this is occurring. That means you may not have any idea this is happening until your energy bill comes in months later!