Your electric bill keeps climbing, but those panels are still on your roof. Here's how to find out if your Sunrun system is doing its job.
You signed up with Sunrun expecting lower bills and energy independence. For a while, maybe it worked. But lately, your electric bills have been creeping up, your true-up statement was higher than expected, and you're starting to wonder: is my Sunrun solar system actually working?
It's a fair question — and one that thousands of Sunrun customers across Southern California are asking right now, especially those whose systems were installed five, eight, or even ten years ago. The frustrating part is that it can be genuinely hard to tell whether your system has a problem or whether something else has changed.
Let's walk through how to figure out what's really going on.
Solar systems don't usually fail all at once. They degrade quietly. Here are the red flags that suggest something isn't right:
Any one of these on its own could have an innocent explanation. But if you're seeing two or three of them together, your system is likely underperforming.
The inverter is the piece of equipment that converts the DC electricity your panels produce into the AC electricity your home uses. It's also the component most likely to fail. String inverters — common in systems installed before 2018 — have a typical lifespan of 10 to 15 years, and many are starting to show their age. When an inverter fails or starts operating below capacity, your entire system's production drops. If your Sunrun system uses microinverters, individual units can fail silently, taking one or two panels offline without any obvious sign.
Sunrun provides a monitoring app, but many homeowners installed years ago were never properly set up on monitoring — or their monitoring hardware (like an Enphase Envoy or SolarEdge gateway) has gone offline. Without active monitoring, there's no way to know if a panel or inverter has failed. You'll only find out when the true-up bill arrives.
Even well-maintained panels lose about 0.5% of their output each year. A system installed in 2015 has likely lost 5–6% of its original capacity by now. But degradation isn't the only issue. Panels can develop microcracks from thermal cycling, hail, or even the weight of installers walking on them during maintenance. These cracks aren't visible from the ground but can significantly reduce a panel's output.
Roof-mounted wiring is exposed to heat, UV radiation, and sometimes animals. Squirrels and rats chewing through wiring is more common than you'd think in Southern California. A compromised wire can take an entire string of panels offline. Corroded connections at junction boxes or combiner boxes are another common culprit in older systems.
If you're on a Sunrun lease or power purchase agreement (PPA), there's an additional frustration: you're paying a monthly bill to Sunrun regardless of how much electricity your system produces. If the system underperforms, you still pay Sunrun and still owe your utility for the shortfall. You're essentially paying twice.
Some homeowners assume Sunrun's performance guarantee protects them. And technically, most contracts do include a production guarantee. But the guarantee typically covers total annual production, not monthly performance. And if Sunrun doesn't have active monitoring on your system, they may not even know it's underperforming — and they won't proactively reach out to fix it.
Here's a practical checklist you can work through today:
If you've gone through the checklist and things look off — or if you simply can't access your monitoring data — it's time to have a professional look at your system. Sunrun will sometimes send a technician, but wait times can be long, and their incentive to find problems on a leased system isn't always aligned with yours.
An independent solar inspection gives you an unbiased picture of your system's health: actual production versus expected production, equipment condition, shading analysis, and a clear explanation of what's costing you money.
SoCal Solar Check provides free, independent solar system assessments for Sunrun customers across Southern California. We'll check your production, inspect your equipment, and tell you exactly what's going on — no sales pitch, just answers.
Get Your Free System CheckThe worst time to find out your system isn't working is when your annual true-up statement arrives and you owe hundreds or thousands of dollars you weren't expecting. The best time to find out is now — while there's still time to fix the problem and reclaim a full year of production. If your Sunrun system is more than five years old, a checkup isn't paranoia. It's just smart homeownership.