Whenever a person decides to have a solar pv system installed at their property, they do so with a particular goal in mind. What that particular goal is more often than not is determined by the individual or household installing the solar pv system. The three most common goals for solar pv customers are reducing electricity bills, reducing their carbon footprint and so becoming “greener” in the process and making a substantial and noticeable return on their investment.
No solar pv installer is naïve enough to dismiss the financial incentives of a solar pv system and appreciate that very often that is the main reason why somebody would choose to have a solar pv system installed on their roof.
The financial aspect of a solar pv system is made up of three parts. The savings a household will make by using self-generated energy as opposed to grid bought energy; the generation tariff which is currently set at 13.88 pence for every unit of electricity generated by the solar pv system and the export tariff which is currently set at 4.77 pence per unit for half of what the solar pv system generates.
It would seem quite logical that anybody installing a solar pv system would want to be able to monitor the performance of the system. Most solar installations come with a generation meter which counts up every time a unit of electricity is produced. There are also more in depth monitoring devices available. One such example is a Geo Green monitoring system. This monitoring system is able to tell the customer exactly how each individual panel is performing. Like an ever increasing number of things, there is even an app for your smart phone so that you can monitor the performance of your solar pv system no matter where you are.
