Hi, Right now I have a 12kw inverter set up with 4 True South (Northern Hemisphere) facing sets of 9, 365 watt panels each. Due to the clouds here I plan on adding another set of 9 panels so I never switch back to utility. I make so much extra power during the middle of the day that most of it is already clipped even on a mostly cloudy day. I was thinking of adding the 5th set facing East at about a 35* angle so it would put extra charge into the batteries shortly after sunrise, I realize there would be nothing from it in the afternoon, but my batteries are fully charged up until about 5PM on a sunny day anyway and sometimes the charge is a bit low by 8AM and doesn’t really come back till about 10AM when the power really starts to kick in. My charge controllers seem to work well together and you can notice slight variations in power from each as clouds pass over, so it seems to me they wouldn’t care if one set faced a different direction. Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated. That’s about it. the dog
For sure @the_uglydog, this is the cheapest way to maximise your solar energy usage (as opposed to more batteries).
Thanks Marty. I was rather thinking that. I make so much extra during the peak of the day, I really need the extra in the morning. As always I greatly appreciate your input. You guys have really helped me build a system that really works well and puts out huge amounts of power. the dog
East facing panels will definitely help, although I would recommend just slightly NE facing which will help more in winter. I’m completely off-grid and have panels facing north, east and west to get a longer charging window. Although the bulk of my panels are north-facing due to my larger winter consumption.
I would not be so Quick to Jump the gun & Debate that!
A System that Generates substantial Excess Energy & is Off-Grid !
I consider it’s Far smarter/better to be able to Store & Utilises that additional Energy …when Needed, Rather than Wasting that Free Energy !
However, it usually comes down to the Cost to Purchase & Install an additional Solar System.
Eg. 9x 365W Panels @AU$300?each =AU$2’700 +installation say Half day job AU$1’500? = TOTAL: AU$4’200.00
Weighed against the outright Purchasing of a 10.24kWh LiFePO4 Battery for AU$5’00.00, and 48V DC Batteries are as easy & safe to install, as connecting an additional Battery into a Vehicle, simply connect New Battery leads into the Positive (+) and Negative (-) Copper DC Bus-Bars.
What I love about having LARGER than needed Energy Storage (*On or Off-Grid), then all that is needed to securely Black-out proof your premises, is a small Silenced Generator, that commonly may Only be need a Few times a Year, as experienced Off-Griders will know.
A 6kW Auto Start generator costs AU$1’800, the Running Cost is only $1.50 per hour, and usually after several Days of bad weather it may cost you $3 to fully charge your batteries, OR if Grid Connected, keep Paying a $1 per Day to Remain connected into the State Grid for a piece of mind & Security.
So, AU$6’800 is the Real cost if you don’t have a suitable Auto Start Generator.
Owning or Paying off Energy Storage, is like purchasing a large Tank of Solar Petrol, you Top up your Solar Tank with FREE Energy, and use that Energy when needed. 
Am I Not Clear enough ?
Or is there something I am missing.
Hi, Thanks for the input. I was thinking of a slight angle toward the equator, but I’ll have to do the calculations since winter is usually sunny all the time here and I seem to make more power in winter. This system is our main house critical load system that powers our lights refrigerators, microwaves and bedroom air conditioners. By the time this is installed we will have 1200ah of 48v LifePo4 batteries on this system, enough to last 30 hours if we are conservative on our usage and 22 hours if we use everything as normal. We have a 30kw generator that is ready to connect. We need it to power both our main house critical load system and our well pump and water pressurization system, so what I plan to do with the generator is to use a 48v 80amp battery charger for this system and a 48v 60 amp charger for the water system since it’s battery bank is smaller. That should bring things up to charge about even and will allow it to power both systems at the same time if I don’t allow them to get too low. I buy most everything direct, my present cost for 365 watt panels is $100. US so I don’t mind the excess. Here in PH during monsoon season we can have clouds for weeks at a time and right now my 4 sets of panels on the critical load system usually keeps everything charged all day, except when it is heavy rain. But electricity here is probably 2-3 times the cost of it in AU. Before we started installing solar our monthly electric bill was over $1000.US for our critical load system only. We now have 4 individual solar systems and have an additional 7 a/c units, a 2hp pool pump, a 2hp deep well pump, a 1.5hp system pressurization pump, a 1hp fish pond filtration pump, a 2hp irrigation pump and a full sized commercial cloths dryer running on our our other systems. Our total electric bill is about $500.US a month. Also I’m considering using a small inverter as a slave on the critical load system to only operate when battery voltage is within 2 volts of full charge so as not to waste as much energy.