Proactive System Maintenance: Why is it key for long-term value?

Proactive maintenance of your solar system allows you to get the most value out of your investment. In this blog, Lead Performance Consultant Danishi Katgara explains why professional management of your system is key to driving maximum return from your investment.

The Less Glamourous Side of Solar

Let’s be blunt: maintenance isn't the most glorious aspect of solar. Everyone loves the idea of putting big systems on their roofs and reaping the financial rewards. The panels themselves look fantastic and end up reducing your energy usage. But having to organise the ongoing maintenance – like any piece of equipment – is a little less satisfying.

The unfortunate reality is that as with anything that requires parts to work, your solar system needs to be maintained and regularly serviced. Getting your car serviced, for instance, is a simple fact of life, but nobody is ever really excited about doing it. 

The good news? Unlike cars, premium-quality solar systems don’t need much maintenance to do their job: there are no moving parts, and no potholes to contend with. However, they are still complex pieces of equipment that will degrade over time – and much faster than you anticipated if you fail to maintain them.

It pays to be proactive about your solar maintenance

While they might not have to deal with the hazards of the road, solar systems are perpetually exposed to the sun and other elements of Australian weather, so they still require regular check-ups. The frequency of those checks depends on the environment – a large facility in the middle of the Outback will likely need more attention than a small solar set-up in a metropolitan area.

As such, some businesses might need to get their system inspected and cleaned every six months, while others may only need a service every two years. It's essential to consult with experts at the time of installation to assess your situation and design a maintenance program which suits your needs. It’s also why being proactive is so important. Proactive maintenance allows you to get ahead of any potential hiccups before they snowball into avoidable failures.

There have been multiple times when our team has gone to a site, conducted an inspection and found water leaking in one of the rooftop isolators – that’s a major point of failure in all solar systems. In this case, we'll advise the business owner that it needs replacing or recommend a specific fix to solve the problem. If that service hadn’t taken place and the problem had escalated, within no time there would have been far too much water to do a ‘quick fix' and it would have led to an electrical arc, which could spark and lead to fires.

In this example, a serious and costly crisis is averted thanks to a proactive approach to system maintenance.

Monitoring, Maintenance, Cleaning and Guarantees - What do I need?

So, how proactive do you actually need to be? Is it something that needs 24/7 attention? Not necessarily – at least not from your end. We recommend having a monitoring system in place so that someone has access to the system at any time and knows exactly what's going on. This is the bare minimum – because if a person is monitoring it notices a fault, you can at least be reactive and get a technician out to the site straight away.

At Smart Commercial Solar, we offer a state-of-the-art maintenance service that gives you complete visibility of your solar system's performance. Smart Active is your complete solar operations and maintenance plan, which includes:

• Real-time monitoring
• Yearly solar analytics subscription
• Monthly reporting
• Customer support
• System alerts
• Rectification management
• Phone tech support
• Subsidised rates for service call out/onsite

The Smart Active service is provided by our Performance team, who are the leading provider of commercial solar servicing in Australia. They're committed to helping you achieve your sustainable energy goals and will ensure your system runs in peak condition, leaving you to focus on growing your business.

Speak to a member of the team today to discover how to get the most out of your solar investment!