Get more out of your solar

The way you manage your solar can help you get the most out of the system and reduce your overall energy bills.

Make best use of your power

Those with a home battery system can store their power for later use and enjoy flexibility in how they use their power, but for those who don't, timing your use of solar can help you reduce your energy bills.

While your system will automatically sell excess power back to the grid through your solar feed-in tariff, it can work out better to time when you use solar power. You may choose to run appliances during solar generation times (during the day), especially when you are on a flat usage tariff, so you don't end up sending it to the grid during the day only to have to buy back more power later.

This does not apply to everyone. If your usage tariff is lower at night, then you may want to sell more of your generated energy during the day and utilise the cheaper tariff at night to run your appliances. This assumes that your off-peak tariff is lower than the feed-in tariff you get for selling your excess solar to the grid.

Stagger your consumption

Most modern appliances have timing delay functions so you’re able to set the dishwasher, washing machine or clothes dryer to begin at any time during the day. If you're on a flat usage tariff, staggering when you use appliances will minimise the power drawn. You can use the power from your panels evenly throughout the day instead of buying extra power from the grid when you run them at the same time.

Alternatively, try delaying your use of appliances until your off-peak tariff kicks in (if you have one).

Monitor your solar power

Monitoring your solar power allows you to:

1. Have peace of mind. Beyond regularly cleaning your solar panels from dirt and grime as well as having them inspected by a certified electrician, monitoring your solar power will reassure you that your system is working.
2. Track your output. This way you can notice any patterns or identify faults in your system.
3. Optimise your use of solar. Tracking your power usage and the health of your system will keep it performing at its best.

There are a few ways you can monitor your solar power:

1. Using your electricity meter, we're able to send you data about your solar exports and usage through the AGL app or My Account. You may not be able to access this data immediately, as it can take up to two weeks to get this up and running on our end.
2. Existing AGL customers with solar may be able to monitor their solar power with Solar Command Check.
3. Monitor it directly from the inverter or a monitoring system you’ve set up. Most inverters will have 'this month/last month' figures or an inbuilt Wi-Fi/Bluetooth monitoring system.

Learn more about how Solar monitoring helps your system shine.

Maintain your solar system

While inspections and technical maintenance should be left to a licensed electrician or Clean Energy Council-accredited solar panel system installer, you can prolong the life of your solar and ensure its performance by cleaning it regularly. To learn more about solar maintenance, head to Solar problems and maintenance.

Manage your solar battery

There are a number of ways you can get the best performance out of your solar battery.

1. Avoid setting your backup power-reserve limit too high.
2. Check that your battery is set to the operating mode that delivers you the most savings. You might choose to set your battery to time-based control mode so that it charges from the grid at off-peak times and discharges during peak times.
3. Contribute to a more reliable energy system in your community while receiving bill credits through the year by connecting your existing battery to our Virtual Power Plant.
4. Ensure you have the correct solar system size for your battery.
5. Monitor your battery performance in the AGL app or My Account.

Monitor with Solar Command

Solar Command is a real-time solar monitoring service. It remotely monitors your system’s energy production and household energy usage, calculates your estimated savings, shows how much solar or grid energy you’ve used, and provides this all via a personalised dashboard. If you subscribed to Solar Command, we would have installed a device on your switchboard to read and record the data required to provide you with this insight.

Solar Command Check is a daily update based on your home’s smart meter data for the previous 30 days. It tells you when your system is producing solar energy or if we think there might be a problem. To do this, we estimate your solar energy production and compare it against expected production for a system of your size, age and location. We can then provide an indication of its performance. This is only an estimate due to the limited amount of information we have about your system.

If you're having difficulty accessing your existing Solar Command service, you can get in touch with us.

Update Solar Command login details

This can be done via your solar monitoring dashboard.

1. Click on Login Details using the navigation bar on the top left.
2. On the Login Details, you’ll see ‘login email address’. Click ‘Update’ and then update with the new email address before clicking 'Save'.

If you’d like more information on solar or our solar plans, check out Solar and renewables.

Related topics

Solar and battery installations

Solar Feed-in Tariffs and billing

Solar problems and maintenance