Maintenance & power cuts: the honest answers.

Last updated: 4 July 2026 · Written by the ECONEXIS team, MCS-accredited installers.

"What will this cost me to look after?" and "does it work when the power goes off?" are two of the most sensible questions a homeowner can ask — and two of the most fudged answers in the industry. Here are the straight versions of both.

How much maintenance do solar panels actually need?

Very little — and that's not sales talk, it's physics. Solar panels haveno moving parts: nothing to oil, nothing to wear out mechanically. On a typical pitched UK roof, rain does most of the cleaning for you. That's why panels carry 25-year performance warranties as standard — a length of cover almost no product with moving parts could offer. (TheEnergy Saving Trust's solar guidance says much the same.)

• Panels: a visual check now and then. If output dips and the glass is visibly soiled — heavy bird droppings under a flight path, thick pollen, farm dust — a clean restores it. Many homes never need one.
• Monitoring: your app shows daily generation. A healthy system is boringly consistent; a fault shows up as an obvious dip, so problems don't hide.
• The inverter is the real workhorse: it runs all day, every day, and is the one component most systems will replace once in the panels' 25-year life. Modern inverters and batteries typically carry 10-year warranties.
• Our part: every ECONEXIS install is backed by an insurance-backed workmanship guarantee — and we don't vanish after handover.

Budget-wise: plan for roughly nothing in the first decade beyond an optional clean, and one inverter replacement somewhere in years 10–15. That's the honest whole-life picture — and it's already reflected in the payback maths in our"is it worth it" guide.

What happens in a power cut? (The truth)

Here's the part many installers gloss over: a standard grid-tied solar system switches itself off during a power cut — even in bright sunshine. That's not a flaw; it's a legal safety requirement (called anti-islanding) that stops your panels back-feeding a grid that engineers are working on.

A battery changes this — but only if the system is designed for backup.The battery systems we fit (Fox ESS, Sigenergy, Tesla Powerwall 3) all offer backup capability, but it isn't automatic: it needs the right hardware configuration and a decision about which circuits to protect. Realistically:

• Essential-circuit backup is the sweet spot for most homes — fridge, lights, Wi-Fi and sockets keep running while the street is dark.
• Whole-home backup is possible but needs the system sized for your peak loads — we'll tell you honestly whether it's worth the extra.
• No backup fitted? Your battery still does its main job — storing cheap or solar energy for expensive hours — it just pauses, like the grid, during an outage.

UK power cuts are rare and usually short, so we don't push backup on everyone — but if it matters to you (medical equipment, home office, rural supply), say so at the design stage and we'll build it in from day one. It's much cheaper than retrofitting later. More on batteries in ourbattery storage cost guide and thebrand comparison.

The two questions to ask any installer

• "What exactly is covered, for how long — panels, inverter, battery, and your workmanship?" (Ours: 25 years / 10 years / 10 years / insurance-backed.)
• "If I want backup in a power cut, is this design capable of it — and what does it protect?" A vague answer here tells you everything.

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