Start with where the energy goes
You open your solar app and see a sun, a house, a few moving arrows and several different numbers. The panels are generating, but the home is also using electricity from the grid. Is that normal? And which number tells you how much solar you actually used?
Learning how to read your solar app starts with one idea: electricity generated, electricity used at home and electricity exchanged with the grid are different measurements. Read them together and the screen becomes much more useful.
This guide is for South Australian homeowners using a solar or battery monitoring app. It explains common terms, not the exact menus of a particular brand. Labels, colours and available readings depend on your app and installed monitoring equipment. If you are new to the equipment itself, start with our guide to how solar turns sunlight into electricity.
First, check the unit and the time period
kW tells you the rate of power at a particular moment. Think of it as the speed of energy flowing. kWh tells you how much energy was generated or used over a period. A steady 2 kW load running for one hour uses 2 kWh.
A live reading of 3 kW and a daily total of 18 kWh can both be correct. They answer different questions. Before comparing two tiles, check whether each shows Now, Today, Yesterday or a longer period. Also check the last-updated time: an old reading is not a live reading.
The five readings worth understanding
| App label you may see | What it means |
|---|---|
| Solar / PV / Generation | Electricity your solar system produces. This is not automatically the amount your household uses. |
| Home / Load / Consumption | Electricity used by the home within the monitoring system’s coverage. It may come from solar, the grid or a battery. |
| Self-use / Self-consumption | The portion of your solar used on-site rather than exported. In a solar-only home, this is solar used directly by the household. |
| Export / Feed-in / To grid | Electricity leaving your property for the grid. In a solar-only home, this is surplus solar not used at home. |
| Import / From grid / Purchased | Electricity entering your property from the grid. It is not the same as your home’s total consumption. |
Battery systems add another route for energy. Look separately at charging, discharging and where that energy comes from or goes. Do not assume every exported kWh came straight from the panels, or that every imported kWh went directly to household appliances. The Tesla Australia energy-data guide, for example, shows why component-level flows matter.
One day, five numbers: a simple example
Illustrative example only: a solar-only home, with no battery or other generator, complete monitoring and all figures covering the same day. These are not Australian household averages, customer results or a performance forecast. Small measurement and rounding differences are ignored.
- Solar generation: 20 kWh.
- Solar used directly at home: 8 kWh.
- Solar exported: 12 kWh.
- Electricity imported: 8 kWh.
- Total home consumption: 16 kWh.
Two simple checks connect the numbers:
20 kWh generated = 8 kWh used directly + 12 kWh exported.
16 kWh used by the home = 8 kWh direct solar + 8 kWh imported.
Nothing has disappeared. The home produced more energy across the day than it consumed, but still imported electricity at other times. A daily total does not show whether generation and demand happened together.
This also explains two easily confused percentages. The home used 40% of its solar generation directly: 8 divided by 20. Solar supplied 50% of its home consumption: 8 divided by 16. Different denominators, different questions. Check the app’s definition before comparing percentages, especially when a battery is included.
Why your app and electricity bill look different
For a typical net-metered solar home, the retailer’s meter records electricity crossing the grid connection. Solar used directly inside the property is not grid import or export. That is why the bill’s solar export figure is not your total solar generation. The Australian Government’s monitoring guide explains that your bill shows payment for exports, but not the savings from solar used on-site.
Compare like with like: app import against billed import, and app export against billed export, over matching dates. Check which circuits the app covers and whether the data is complete. Matching the labels is the starting point, not a guarantee of identical totals.
If your app shows an estimated dollar saving, treat it as a separate calculation. It may depend on tariff settings that do not match your current plan; Fronius describes this in its Australian Solar.web support guidance. An app estimate is not a retailer-issued credit.
Missing data does not always mean missing solar
Some systems display generation without measuring household consumption or grid flows. A retailer smart meter does not automatically provide those readings to the solar app. For example, Fronius requires compatible monitoring equipment to display directly consumed power.
A blank tile is therefore not necessarily zero consumption. Likewise, an offline app can reflect a communications problem; it does not, by itself, prove that the panels have stopped generating.
Check the timestamp, date selection and connection message first. If figures stay missing, appear implausible or an equipment fault is reported, ask your installer or manufacturer support to check the monitoring setup. Do not change electrical wiring or installer settings to try to make the numbers match.
A simple routine for clearer answers
- Choose one completed day. Yesterday is easier to compare than a day still in progress.
- Note generation, home use, import and export. Mark unavailable readings as missing, not zero. Include battery flows if you have storage.
- Look at the timeline. When was solar generating, and when was the home drawing from the grid?
- Write down one question. For example: “Does this home-use figure include all my circuits?” or “Why did the data stop updating?”
You do not need to become an energy analyst. The aim is to understand what each reading describes before making a decision from it.
Clarity should be part of your solar handover
At SunEnergy, clear guidance and long-term support are part of helping homeowners make confident energy decisions. If SunEnergy supplied your system, contact our team with the app name, selected date and the reading you want explained. For equipment supplied elsewhere, your original installer or manufacturer is a useful starting point.
If you are planning a new solar or battery system, ask what monitoring is included and which household readings you will be able to see. A useful handover should leave you knowing more than how to log in: it should help you understand what your home is doing.
Start with the numbers, understand their meaning, then decide what to do next.
