That's another really good source for the products , also some info .
That's been a place I have known of & gone to for about 10 yrs.
There prices are competitive .

 

Thanks guys for the answers so far. Was too busy yesterday to reply.
I am beginning to think that I am going to run out of time to put an order together so that I can pick it up the first week of April. Lots of new info to process, so now am hesitating as to the best way to go. Ironically we were without power yesterday from around 2 p.m. until about 6:30 p.m. This does not happen often, but enough to make me consider an alternative electrical source. Not to mention the ever escalating cost per kwh.

What to do, what to do????? Maybe I will just stay with my horribly noisy emergency generator for now?

 

DEPENDS ON THE COST OF FUEL FOR YOUR NOISY GENERATOR!
HEY WOULD YA QUIET THAT THING DOWN
WELL WE GOT GOOD NEWS YESTERDAY - LOCAL UTILITY IS ASKING FOR 11% INCREASE ON ELECTRIC
THESE IDDIOTS HAVE LOST THEIR MIND.
THEY CRY ABOUT SENDING MONEY TO IRAQ &IRAN &ARABIA FOT OIL THEN LET GERMANY PUT UP ELECTRIC GENERATING WIND TURBINES HERE -SOOOOOOONOW WE CAN SEND OUR MONEY TO GERMANY !

 

I would say that for not too much , your can start off very small [ a couple $40 6v golf cart batteries ] to get a good feel for what is going on .
With the solar panels , you can just keep adding , even if they are different brands , but need to stay same voltage [ without more complicated electronics ] .
As far as inverters , I would start small and cheap , because you need to have a good plan to buy for future use .
The same with charger controllers , they are rated by amps coming in & going out , and many of the good inverters have chargers in them [ but mostly they are using grid to charge ] .
Once you have used for some time , got a better feel / idea of what fits your needs , then you can build a quality system , having dealt with many doing there 1st system , I seen a lot of mistakes / miss use , cause early failure , so if you start small & cheap , then it will not cost too much .
Some battery banks for RV use can easily cost $600-1,000 , and if for many reasons , if you only get a couple to a few yrs. out of any one component , that's no fun .
Do not forget to keep at least a couple gallons of distilled water on hand at all times , and check water leaves regularly , after a while you will figure how much water the batteries need on a regular basis , this is probably the 1st & most common failure of batteries , is letting the plates get exposed .

 

I get a lot of batteries from a friend who refurbishes computer UPS systems, they replace the batteries when they are 2 years old and sell them for the price of the lead. He has offered me 2-volt Telco batteries rated at over 2000 ah per cell.

A source for good batteries are local telephone companies and the railroad, they use batteries to run the signaling equipment and regularly change them out.
They are usually 2-volt cells.

 

Those are one of the battery banks you want to end up with , when building a large system [ just to clarify , about an average family home ] .
If I was going to build a system on that scale or larger , & wanted to put the best system together , for a battery bank my 1st choice at this time is nickel / iron batteries , they last longer than almost any and almost any kind of miss use will not kill them , even leaving discharged for yrs. at a time , you can put a charge in them after sitting for 10 yrs. and still have good batteries , I have read reports of them lasting over 50 yrs.

 

Thanks. Now looking for a source in southern Texas, preferably the Austin San antonio area.

John, thanks for the advice about the Home Power magazine. I took a look at it, liked it and now have a three year subscription.