Solar Panels + Home Monitoring

Installing solar panels is a significant investment. Without monitoring, you're essentially flying blind — you know your system is generating power, but you don't know how much you're actually saving versus exporting to the grid.

The Self-Consumption Ratio

The goal is to use as much of your generated solar power directly in your home as possible, rather than exporting it at a lower feed-in tariff. This is your self-consumption ratio.

A home exporting 60% of its generation while importing grid power simultaneously has a serious optimization problem. PowerSense shows you both generation and consumption on the same timeline so you can spot this immediately.

Shift Loads to Solar Hours

Peak solar generation typically happens between 10am – 3pm. Scheduling high-draw appliances (dishwasher, washing machine, EV charging) during this window means you're running them on free solar power instead of grid power.

Battery Storage Decision

If your data shows consistent mid-day export and evening import, that's the clearest possible signal that a home battery would pay for itself. PowerSense's export/import graphs make this calculation straightforward.

Monitoring System Health

A drop in daily generation that doesn't correlate with cloud cover often points to a fault — a shading problem, a dirty panel, or an inverter issue. Real-time monitoring catches these within days rather than months (when you'd otherwise notice on your bill).

Homeowners with solar who add energy monitoring typically improve their self-consumption ratio by 15–25% in the first 90 days — just by shifting habits to align with when their panels are producing.