How does my solar system work?
The short version
Sunlight hits your panels and they make electricity. That electricity powers your house first, and anything you don't use goes out to the grid, where your utility credits you for it. At night, or on a dark day, you draw back from the grid using those credits. Your system does all of this automatically — there's nothing to switch on or manage.
The four parts of an Enphase system
- Solar panels on your roof. They generate DC electricity whenever there's daylight — not just direct sun.
- Microinverters, one underneath each panel. They convert that DC into the AC electricity your house actually uses. This is the key difference from older systems: each panel works independently, so a shaded or underperforming panel doesn't drag the rest down with it.
- The IQ Gateway (older systems call it an Envoy), usually near your electrical panel. It collects readings from every microinverter and sends them to Enphase so you can see them in the app. It's a reporting device — if it goes offline, your panels keep producing.
- The Enphase app, where you see production, consumption, and per-panel detail.
What happens to the power
Your house always takes what it needs first — that's just physics, not a setting. Only the surplus goes to the grid. So on a bright afternoon with nobody home you'll export a lot; on a dark February evening you'll import.
Your utility meter measures both directions. That's what your bill is based on, and it's why your bill and your app never match exactly: the app measures what your panels made, the meter measures what crossed the boundary of your property.
What about during a power outage?
Unless you have a battery, your system shuts down when the grid goes down — even in bright sunshine. That's a safety requirement, not a fault: it stops your panels from sending power into lines that utility crews may be working on. It restarts by itself a few minutes after grid power returns.
If you want power during an outage, that takes a battery. See Batteries & Backup Power.
What you need to do
Very little. Panels have no moving parts, rain does the cleaning, and snow slides off on its own. The one genuinely useful habit is glancing at the app every few weeks — that's how you (and we) catch a problem early rather than a year later.
Don't go on the roof, don't wash the panels, and don't open any of the equipment. If something looks wrong, call us.
Have SolarEdge instead?
The principle is identical; the hardware differs. SolarEdge uses one central inverter with a small power optimizer behind each panel rather than a microinverter per panel. See SolarEdge: what your inverter's lights and screen are telling you.
Ready for us to take a look?
This is the fastest way to reach our service team. It goes straight into the queue with your system details attached, so nothing gets lost in a voicemail. You'll get a confirmation, and you can reply to it with photos or updates as things develop.
Include your Site ID if you have it. It lets us pull up your system and check your monitoring data before we get back to you, which often saves a visit entirely.
Prefer to talk it through? Call (518) 478-8365.
How soon will someone come out? When a visit is needed, we're typically scheduling about two weeks out. That's a typical case rather than a promise — how far you are from us, how full the schedule is that month, and whether a part has to come from Enphase or SolarEdge all move it. If something is urgent or unsafe, say so in your request and we'll treat it differently.
Last verified: August 2026