Can I monitor my solar system from my phone?
Yes, almost all modern solar systems come with a free app that shows live and historical generation, home usage, battery charge level and grid export. Monitoring helps you spot faults early and shift usage to sunny periods, which increases how much of your own solar you use and therefore your savings.
What the app shows
- Live and daily generation from your panels.
- How much you are using versus exporting right now.
- Battery charge level and charge/discharge activity.
- Historical trends to compare months and years.
Why monitoring is worth using
Seeing your generation in real time nudges you to run appliances when the sun is out, lifting self-consumption. It also lets you (or your installer) notice if output drops unexpectedly, which can flag a shaded, dirty or faulty panel before it costs you much.
Frequently asked questions
- Does monitoring cost extra?
- The basic app is usually included with the inverter. Some optimiser systems add panel-level monitoring at a small extra cost.
- Can I see each panel's output?
- Only if you have optimisers or microinverters, which provide panel-level data. String inverters report at the array level.
Related questions
Indicative estimates based on UK average data. Last updated 27 May 2026.