In short
A solar panel health check is a visit where an engineer inspects the panels, tests the electrics and inverter, checks the fixings and generation, then writes it up. A routine home service with us costs around £200 to £300, and the Energy Saving Trust suggests an inspection every one to two years.
Someone has rung offering a "solar health check", or the app is showing less than it did last year, and you want to know what a proper check covers and what it should cost before anyone goes up on your roof.
What a solar panel health check involves
A health check is three things: an inspection, a set of electrical tests and a written report. Our solar panel servicing covers the same ground on every system, home or commercial.
- The panels. Cracks, delamination, discolouration, hot spots, debris and anything nesting underneath.
- The electrics. String voltages and currents, insulation resistance, earthing and bonding, and the isolator switches, tested against the figures from when the system was first commissioned.
- The inverter. Its error log, firmware, cooling and likely remaining life.
- Fixings and mounting. Rails, clamps, roof anchors and weatherproofing. A loose fixing is a safety problem long before it shows up in your generation.
- Cables and connectors. DC connectors that have worn, or were badly made off when the system went in, are a known fire risk point.
- Your generation. What the system has actually made, against what it should make for the time of year. It's the only reliable way to find a fault you can't see.
At the end you get a dated report in plain English: what we found, what we did, what needs watching and what, if anything, needs doing next. You get one even when the answer is that everything is working as it should.
If the check turns up work, such as a clean, bird proofing or a repair, we tell you what it is and what it costs before anything is done.
What changes how often you need a solar panel health check
The Energy Saving Trust's advice. The Energy Saving Trust suggests inspecting the panels, mounting and any visible wiring every one to two years, or having a professional do it. That is what we recommend too.
What to do: If your last check was more than two years ago, or the system has never been looked at, book one.
The MCS minimum. MCS certified installers work to MIS 3002, which includes an advisory maintenance schedule. For a privately owned home it suggests you look the system over yourself every year, with a visit from an MCS installer at 10 years and a fuller one, including a thermal imaging survey, at 15.
What to do: Treat that as the floor, not the target. Find your MCS certificate and note when the system went in.
Your panel warranty. Panel warranties are usually long and usually come with conditions. On how often panels need looking after, Tony Beckett, our director, says "it all depends on the warranty of the panels, what they dictate as well." The Energy Saving Trust also notes that some installers need a service within a set period to keep the warranty valid.
What to do: Check your warranty terms for a servicing condition, and keep every report with your system paperwork.
The age of the system. Inverters are the part of a solar system that fails most often, and most last between ten and fifteen years.
What to do: If your system is about ten years old, have the inverter looked at even if nothing seems wrong.
A cold call. In a 2024 Which? survey, a health check was the most common thing solar cold callers offered, mentioned by 27% of owners. Some were told a yearly check is a government requirement. It isn't.
What to do: Book with a firm you contacted yourself, ask for the price before the visit, and check its MCS and RECC membership on their registers.
What we see on real jobs
Birds come up again and again on older systems. Tony says "we do do some bird proofing on a lot of our jobs", and many of the older systems we're asked to service were never bird proofed when they went in. Nesting material packed under a live array sits against the cabling, so it's one of the first things we look for. If you can hear pigeons on the roof, read how to stop pigeons nesting under solar panels.
The other pattern is a generation drop that turns out not to be a solar problem at all. A fair number of worried calls come down to the monitoring or the wi-fi, and we would rather tell you that than sell you a repair you don't need.
As for why it's worth doing at all, Tony puts it simply: "to keep up with the warranty and the efficiency."
What a solar panel health check costs
A routine service on a home system with us costs around £200 to £300.
Anything the visit finds is priced separately, and you see the price before any work starts. For reference, our published prices are bird proofing at £400 to £800 for a typical home and a replacement inverter at £1,200 to £2,000 fitted, depending on its size and type.
When to call someone, and what to send
Don't wait for the next routine check if:
- this month's generation is well down on the same month last year, and the weather doesn't explain it
- the inverter shows a red light, an error code that won't clear, or a blank screen
- one part of the system seems to be making nothing
- you hear birds under the panels, or see nesting material
- the solar breaker in your consumer unit trips
- there's been a storm or heavy snow that could have moved panels or rails
- you've bought a house with panels, or your installer has stopped trading (see who looks after your panels now)
The quickest start is a few photos on WhatsApp. If we can see the problem, we can usually price it from a picture. Send:
- a photo of the inverter screen, with any error code
- a screenshot of your monitoring showing the drop
- a photo of the panels from the ground
- roughly how old the system is, and the MCS certificate and any past reports if you have them
- your postcode
Key points
A health check is an inspection, tests and a report. Panels, electrics, inverter, fixings, cables and your generation figures, written up and dated.
Every one to two years. That is the Energy Saving Trust's advice and ours. MCS's advisory schedule for a privately owned home is the minimum.
Read your panel warranty. Its conditions can decide how often the system needs looking at.
Around £200 to £300 for a routine home service. Any work the check finds is priced before it's done.
Nobody can make you have one. A yearly check isn't a legal requirement, whatever a cold caller says.
Questions people also ask
How often do solar panels need to be serviced?
The Energy Saving Trust suggests an inspection every one to two years, and that is what we recommend. MCS's advisory schedule for a privately owned home is lighter, with an owner check each year and an installer visit at 10 and 15 years, so treat it as the minimum.
Is a yearly solar panel check a legal requirement?
No, and MCS describes its own maintenance schedule as advisory only. Which? found some cold callers telling owners a yearly check is a government requirement, and that isn't true.
Is solar panel maintenance worth it?
Solar systems tend to fail quietly, so an inverter fault or a worn connector can go unnoticed for months. A check every one to two years, and sooner if generation drops or a fault light comes on, is how you find out.
What is included in a complete solar panel inspection?
A full inspection looks at the panels, tests the DC and AC electrics against the original commissioning figures, and checks the inverter, fixings, cables and generation. It should end with a dated written report, even when nothing is wrong.
We're based in Warrington and check systems across the UK, whoever installed them: book a solar health check or send us a photo on WhatsApp.
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