What to Do If Your Solar Panels Stop Working (2026)
When production reads zero, work through a fixed order: confirm it is a real outage and not a monitoring glitch, check the breakers and disconnects, look for an inverter error code, then call your installer with that information in hand. Most "dead system" calls turn out to be a tripped breaker, a Wi-Fi gap in the monitoring, or an inverter fault covered by warranty — genuine panel failure is the least likely culprit.
Step 1: Confirm the system is actually down
Monitoring apps lose their connection far more often than systems stop producing. Before anything else, check whether the inverter itself — the box on your wall or garage — shows normal operation lights during full daylight. If the inverter looks healthy but the app shows nothing, you likely have a communication problem, not a production problem: reboot your router and the monitoring gateway and give it a day to backfill.
Step 2: Check breakers and disconnects
Solar systems have a dedicated breaker in your main panel and usually one or more disconnect switches. A storm, a utility grid event, or an electrician working on something unrelated can leave one open. Reset a tripped solar breaker once. If it trips again, stop — repeated tripping indicates a real fault that needs a professional, and cycling it repeatedly can make things worse.
Step 3: Read the inverter, don't open it
If the inverter shows an error code or a red/blinking status light, write down or photograph exactly what it displays. That code is the single most useful piece of information you can give a technician. Never open the inverter enclosure — it carries hazardous DC voltage whenever the panels see light, even with the AC side off.
Also worth noting: after a grid outage, standard grid-tied inverters deliberately wait several minutes before restarting. A system that comes back on its own shortly after power is restored is behaving correctly.
Step 4: Call in this order
- Your original installer — workmanship and system-level issues are theirs, and they hold your commissioning records.
- The equipment manufacturer — if the installer is unresponsive or out of business, inverter and panel makers run their own support lines and honor product warranties directly.
- Your utility — only if the issue coincides with a grid event, a meter change, or a disconnection notice on your interconnection.
If your installer has gone out of business, you are not stranded: manufacturer warranties survive, and most established solar companies will take over service on an existing system for a diagnostic fee.
What repairs typically look like
The inverter is the most common failure point over a system's life, and inverter warranties commonly run a decade or more — a warranty replacement usually costs you labor at most, sometimes nothing. Individual panel failures are rarer and covered by long product warranties; the practical cost question is usually labor and roof access rather than the part. Keep every invoice and commissioning document — warranty claims go dramatically faster with paperwork.
Frequently asked questions
My production is low but not zero — is that a failure? Compare against the same month last year first. Gradual, uniform decline usually means soiling or normal seasonal change; a sharp drop in one panel or string in monitoring points to a component issue worth a service call.
Will my house lose power if the solar dies? No. Grid-tied homes draw seamlessly from the utility; you will simply see it on the bill.
How fast should I act? Promptly — every sunny day of downtime is lost production you paid for, and some warranty claims care about timely reporting.
The bottom line
Zero production is usually a breaker, a monitoring gap, or an inverter fault — in roughly that order of ease. Do the safe checks yourself, capture the error code, and put the problem in professional hands with good information. The paperwork you saved at installation is worth real money the day something breaks.