Considering an additional inverter for two balcony mounted panels

[dustmaker]

I have 8 510w east-west panels on a flat roof hooked up to a KH-7 inverter, but these get very little yield in winter months due to the low height of the sun at this time of year. Average yield in Dec was just under 2kwh per day.

I have a south-facing juliet balcony on my loft conversion and had the idea that two near-vertical panels could be mounted, angled slightly upwards, which would get the most of the winter sun.

If I add a small inverter locally for these additional panels, such as a 1.5kw S-series inverter, do I need to connect this to my KH-7 inverter somehow (either through a CT clamp, direct connection between the two, RS485 - have an existing ethernet adapter for home assistant integration, or can they share over the fox cloud?) for the additional generation to appear in my stats, and most importantly, to charge the batteries on the KH-7?

Many thanks
Alex

[evilbunny]

had the idea that two near-vertical panels could be mounted, angled slightly upwards, which would get the most of the winter sun.

Optimum angle depends on distance from the equator, not just time of year.

If I add a small inverter locally for these additional panels, such as a 1.5kw S-series inverter, do I need to connect this to my KH-7 inverter somehow (either through a CT clamp, direct connection between the two, RS485 - have an existing ethernet adapter for home assistant integration, or can they share over the fox cloud?) for the additional generation to appear in my stats, and most importantly, to charge the batteries on the KH-7?

As you pointed out, there is 2 coupling methods, AC with an additional inverter, or DC connected to the inverter connected to the battery.

With AC you would need a CT clamp for the battery to monitor it.

DC is simpler and has less losses since it's not going DC->AC->DC and can still charge during black outs. BUT the inverter we have can be connected to multiple solar arrays, however they have to be the same size and be pointed in the same direction with the same angle.

Otherwise the output from the solar arrays is somehow limited from both systems that I didn't fully comprehend while reading about it in the user manual.