5 Benefits of Solar Monitoring

Enact provides homeowners with independent insights into their solar performance through the Enact Home app. Homeowners can track financial outcomes, monitor performance and more with Enact Home.

Solar monitoring is the technology used to track and analyze the performance of a solar energy system. Some solar monitoring apps, like Enact Home, can also monitor storage battery charge and performance. Solar monitoring involves using specialized software, like the Enact Home app, to collect and display data about the energy production and consumption of your solar panels. 

This data typically includes metrics like how much electricity your solar panels are generating, how much energy your household is using and how much power is being sent back to the grid or stored in batteries. Enact Home additionally shows financial savings, allowing owners to see how much they save over time.

Solar monitoring systems, like Enact Home, collect information from your inverter data — installed along with your solar panels. Inverters can measure the flow of electricity and communicate this information to the monitoring platform. The platform then processes the data and presents it in an easy-to-understand format, often with charts, graphs and reports that provide insights into your system’s performance.

By keeping an eye on these metrics, solar monitoring helps homeowners ensure their solar investment is operating efficiently. It also enables homeowners to quickly detect and address any issues, optimize energy usage and maximize the financial and environmental benefits of their investment in solar energy.

If production drops due to issues like shading, dirt accumulation or equipment malfunctions — the monitoring system quickly alerts the homeowner. Notification alerts from solar monitoring platforms, like Enact Home, enable prompt maintenance and minimize any potential downtime. You do not want to find out your panels are not working properly when you see your utility bill increase.

Solar monitoring allows homeowners to optimize their energy usage by understanding when their system generates the most power. By aligning high-energy activities with peak production times, they can reduce reliance on grid electricity, leading to greater savings. The system also helps prevent costly repairs by providing early warnings for potential issues, allowing homeowners to address problems before they escalate. Solar monitoring offers clear insights into the financial returns of the solar investment, making it easier for homeowners to track their savings and understand the overall impact on their utility bills.

For environmentally conscious homeowners, solar monitoring enhances their ability to track the positive environmental impact of their solar energy usage. It provides tangible data on metrics like CO2 emissions avoided, reinforcing the benefits of their commitment to renewable energy. Overall, solar monitoring empowers homeowners to take control of their solar energy systems, ensuring they operate efficiently, save money and contribute to a more sustainable future. Without it, they might miss out on the full range of benefits that solar energy can offer.

By providing these comprehensive insights, solar monitoring not only helps ensure that systems operate efficiently but also empowers homeowners to make informed decisions that optimize both financial savings and environmental impact.

Whether it’s a drop in energy production or a system malfunction, this proactive monitoring ensures that the system is always operating at its optimal capacity. Identifying inefficiencies or faults early on can prevent energy losses and even reduce the need for costly repairs, ultimately ensuring that the solar system delivers the expected returns over time.

In 2024, Enact Home released a new feature — enabling users to integrate the platform with their Pacific Gas and Electric Company data. This new feature benefits users who are customers of PG&E, who can integrate their utility data with Enact Home. Our app displays a breakdown of your energy consumption by Time-of-Use or tiered utility pricing. By utilizing PG&E’s Share My Data, users receive more personalized insights and independent analysis.

Homeowners can gain a clear understanding of their energy usage patterns, including peak consumption times and the overall amount of energy used. This data empowers users to make more informed decisions about how they use electricity, allowing them to adjust behaviors and reduce energy consumption during high-cost periods. Over time, this can lead to significant energy savings, further improving the efficiency of the solar system. These insights also help homeowners determine whether additional solar panels or battery storage might be beneficial to maximize their energy independence and savings.

For users who are not PG&E customers but have a battery or consumption meter, Enact Home can display overall energy consumption. All users can compare energy production and consumption overtime. Enact Home enables our users to get the most out of their solar experience.

By receiving timely notifications, homeowners can address issues before they escalate into bigger, more expensive problems. This maintenance approach not only saves money by preventing large repairs but also ensures that the solar system continues to function efficiently over its lifespan, maximizing the long-term return on investment.

The app provides clear data on energy production, savings on utility bills, and progress toward recouping the initial investment. This gives homeowners a comprehensive view of the financial benefits of their solar installation. This financial transparency helps users better understand the impact of their solar system.

These reports provide key insights, starting with the return on investment (ROI) of your solar system. As your system reduces utility costs, Enact Home tracks both your monthly and cumulative ROI, helping you see how your system is progressing toward paying for itself.

Additionally, users can view their monthly savings and the total electricity generated by their system. After investing in solar, it’s rewarding to track not only your financial savings but also the energy your system produces.

In addition to these core features, Enact Home users benefit from outage reports and installer notifications, enabling quick identification and resolution of potential issues. Users can customize their notification preferences for a personalized monitoring experience. For PG&E customers, utility and solar information can now be seamlessly integrated into the Enact platform for added convenience.

Enact Home is committed to giving solar homeowners more options. While your inverter manufacturer might offer a monitoring app, Enact Home provides a more comprehensive and independent solution that covers all aspects of your energy system.

Unlike apps tied to specific manufacturers, Enact Home operates independently, offering an unbiased, user-friendly solar monitoring experience for both homeowners and businesses. Our goal is to help you understand the performance and health of your solar energy system, while also giving you a full picture of your overall energy usage.

To learn more about Enact Home, visit our website.