Compliments of the season to all.

It's been 18 months since I switched Eskom off and still going strong with a few hours of help from my 5kva gennie. Inverter set to draw max of 3000 watts from generator .

About to enter 3rd winter pretty soon and am contemplating a few extra panels.Currently have 5X550 nnw and 5X550 nne ,Solis s6 6kw inverter and 3 5kw e-tower . I miss out a lot early morning and late afternoon .What about combining my existing set-up into one mppt and then into 2nd mppt add 8 almost vertical panels facing due East and West. 4 and 4.

Surely there should a timer switch or something that in the morning the East array could be active from sunrise till about 11h00 and that device would then switch over to West panels at say 14h00 till sunset.

Feasable???

Morning Rory.

Have you had a look at adding a Victron Mppt directly to your batteries to assist with charging.

You could add the mppt with its own panels to charge the batteries. Just need to do the setting correctly.

Thanks Jacques .Could you elaborate a bit. Maybe a layout proposal .

This is just basic drawing. I did not include any protection. Mppt setting the same or just below inverter voltage. Only issue is that you cant see the charging of batteries on the interver page. Will need to monitor separately via the victron app.

So that would be for East. Would I then duplicate for western array or does one get a Victron unit to accommodate both arrays.

I am very grateful for yr time.Thanks

35 minutes ago, Rory Kilpatrick said:

So that would be for East. Would I then duplicate for western array or does one get a Victron unit to accommodate both arrays.

I am very grateful for yr time.Thanks

Sorry for jumping in @Jacques Ester I agree leave existing panels as is on the Solis. Add 8 extra panels as per my very untidy drawing. Remember to include all safety devices( fuses mcb)

There are a few different ways of doing it.

You can combine your 2 string as mentioned and add more panels.

You can leave your panels and add the victron with its own panels to boost morning or afternoon.

2 hours ago, Rory Kilpatrick said:

Compliments of the season to all.

It's been 18 months since I switched Eskom off and still going strong with a few hours of help from my 5kva gennie. Inverter set to draw max of 3000 watts from generator .

About to enter 3rd winter pretty soon and am contemplating a few extra panels.Currently have 5X550 nnw and 5X550 nne ,Solis s6 6kw inverter and 3 5kw e-tower . I miss out a lot early morning and late afternoon .What about combining my existing set-up into one mppt and then into 2nd mppt add 8 almost vertical panels facing due East and West. 4 and 4.

Surely there should a timer switch or something that in the morning the East array could be active from sunrise till about 11h00 and that device would then switch over to West panels at say 14h00 till sunset.

Feasable???

Definitely go with what Jacques is proposing. I have a Victron MPPT also currentlt connected to one 620W panel as I have a lot of space on the roof and wanted a little extra. It works like a charm with my inverter. Just make sure they both have the same charging settings and you will be good to go.

Ever since I installed a geyser controller to take the geyser off the grid I havent touched the grid also. But the fixed charges are steep (1.4k) so am currently in the process of getting disconnected. Just waiting for the quote to be done by COJ but the lady that does the quotes was on leave so she should be back this week. Will hopefully complete the process next week, and might add another panel to the Victron.

All these comments and tips are fantastic. Thanks to all. TaliaB ,your drawing makes a lot of sense. Do all you guys agree that a steep angle ,say 45/50 degree for mid -winter would give me at least 75% of panel rating for a good couple of hours . My maths tells me that +/- 2 hours would probably charge one battery to full from say 30% SOC for want of putting it simply.

Dennis ,I was Eskom direct. It was a mission but I was a very happy guy when my deposit eventually got back into my account.