Found something you might be interested in:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09R4NB4YB/

For that price($4,699.00) I can get three times the power (I'm paying $4,481.40 for 15360Whs from another 12 LiFePO4 Batteries), the 2000W inverter won't carry the loads I need, and the '1200W Max Solar Input' would only handle 5 of the 16 (soon to be 24) 210W panels. It does claim to be a 'Split Phase' 240V if you use two of them, but I already have

There was a reason I stayed away from the 'all in one' systems, most are okay as 'little something is better than nothing', but are limited and can't be expanded. (and even with already having three times the storage I'm adding to mine!)

Oh, this is a 5.1kWh battery for that $4700, but with a 2kW inverter, though two of these cost as much as those purpose built batteries like the Enphase systems or a Tesla PowerWall, which are usually 10kWh each.

Your inverter is 6kW continuous, so I imagine that eventually you'll need to upgrade that to support the extra battery power and solar panels you want to add. Do they make larger inverters, or can you daisy chain inverters?

One thing to remember is that you have two sets of 'Watts' to play with. The inverter limits the maximum watts drawn at any one time while the batteries and solar panels limit the number of watts you might use in a day.

If you divide 6000W into 15360Whs you discover that at full inverter load my battery bank with go from topped off to flat in a mere two and a half hours. Even doubling the battery bank only gives you five hours of runtime at 6000 watts.

Best sun charging to date has been just over a kilowatt hour per panel (16.24 with 16 panels, should be able to expect 24kWhs when I add eight more), which could add another 2.5-4 hours of runtime at 6000 watts (but that would mean the batteries didn't get any of that power.)

Since the current setup is topping off the batteries on most sunny days with power from the panels being 12-15kWhs of juice (and I understand we put about 1.25 times the power in for the power out on these batteries) then my normal (inside) house usage is around 10-12kWhs or averaging a mere 420Whs per hour.

Want to hear a really good joke? I have a gaming machine I use to make my 3D art. If the CPU and GPU are running at full power during a rendering the beast will draw over 440 watts all by itself (yes, I've been using it rather sparingly of late! )

Here in Texas, we have our smart meters, so we can go to https://www.smartmetertexas.com/ and check our usage (but the latest information is only two days old). At the very minimum, if everything is off (except for the fridge, of course, and minimal parasitic draw from all the electronics), I can use about 3-5kWh per day. Typically, it can be 10kWh in a day if the computer and TV is on, but the computer isn't doing anything.

As of recently, I used 15kWh minimum with the AC or heat off because I'm using both my laptop and computer do some crypto mining. If the heat is on (I have a space heater in my room, because the old Dearborn heater is WAY too effective at heating the room), I can use up to 50kWh in a day. AC on, its about 25-30kWh (I have an LG Dual Inverter 18,000 BTU unit for the main part of the house). I haven't seen how much extra it is when using my dryer, since I did that yesterday, and 4/8 is the most current usage on that website.

The solar panel system I would like to have, would be equal to, or slightly over my recent average usage (say around a 8kW system)
Like this here: https://i.imgur.com/sZfWqSf.png

From what I've heard, crypto mining draws a lot of power - as in you'll pay more for the electricity than you make from the coin, though with the value of some crypto coins going up that may no longer be the case.

If you want solar for charging batteries to run the house go as much more than a day's worth of power that you can, as one cloudy day can sink you. (Which is why I'm adding batteries to hold enough power for an extra day and the solar panels to mostly recharge the batteries after a cloudy/rainy day. )

I'm using 220 watts from both the laptop and computer, so 5.28kWh a day, so about 54.12 cents a day, or about $16.46 a month. I earn between $1.50 and $3.50 a day (depending on the number of blocks found in the pool for that day). Usually, it takes four weeks (+/- a few days) to get 0.02 Ethereum with my setup, which currently is $3300 per coin, or about $66 at current prices (usually varies between $50 and $75 per month). So, effectively, my profit varies from $33.54 to $58.54 a month

(I use https://eth.crazypool.org/ as the pool, and mine with the TRex client)

My computer has an RTX2070, TRex calculates its using 156W to mine. The laptop has a dedicated GTX1060 Max Q video card, which Trex calculates it uses 64W to mine.

So if you do it long enough you can use it to pay for the solar - which is then free electricity? Sounds great!

Sure, with my current setup, that would take 20 years, I'd imagine ($55 x 24mo x 20yr = $26,400). Unless you want to buy one of those insanely expensive dedicated ASIC miners.

Cheapest is $1500, mining Dogecoin, using somewhere around 220 watts, and at 205MH. That being the Goldshell Mini-Doge Pro. That might get you $30-35 a month, with power costs being maybe $16 a month

FWIW, I've only been doing this since about June/July last year. I think I've made maybe $800-900? I know with Crazypool I've mined 0.216903623 Eth (that's like $716 at current coin prices)

That'd buy a couple panels!

Yes it's all about learning what works and what doesn't.

And leaving room to adapt rather than having to toss it and start over.

We are looking at setting up two systems, one 24 volt for lighting, low power draws like water pump from cistern and usb charges then a 48 volt system for the inverter. That way we don't loose everything if one system goes down.

It's all a matter of what you 'think' you'll need. If your inverter is just 2000 watts then you might be able to go 24 volts all over.

I went 48 because at 6000 watts the inverter would be drawing 125 amps at 48 and 250 amps at 24. (ignoring loses in the system)

There is a chance my setup might end up as part of a motor-home, in which case I was figuring on running 48 and 12 volt systems. (there being so many 12 volt options out there. )

I worked out I would need about 4000 watts of 220 to run most of my shop tools and the home.

For lighting I know it's more efficient to run dc lights then using the inverter to step things up then step things back down in the light source...

Depending on the house build that will decide how we heat and cool the place.

That 6000 watt inverter I picked up would fill the bill 48 (or 96) DC in, 240 split phase out. Whatever you do make sure the inverter is a pure sine wave out, it'll be a heavy beast because it has a large transformer feeding the output. (some of the non-pure sine wave ones have a very 'chunky' output that can damage your electronics.)

Another thing to consider in the AC/DC choice is wire runs and current requirements. On long runs it might be 'cheaper' to convert to AC and then convert or use an AC light/motor then to run heavier wires (both for current and to reduce line loss) to run lower voltage DC lights/motors at the other end.

Something else that can be done is to separate things into two 'banks' home/shop, that way you playing in the shop too long doesn't mean the house runs out of power. And it doesn't have to be done all at once, just have the wiring in place as you build it (this could also give you redundancy if/when something fails - or you have to borrow from the shop power because the house batteries are getting low ... )

That's near what we plan to do to be honest. The biggest ac loads will be the washer, microwave and heat pump.

well... at least you're there... more than me, I'm still sucking off the grid...

V.

It's not for everyone, and you have to know/understand things a bit to play these games. Yes, I could turn this into more of a turnkey system, but at much greater cost (and it would still need to be watched over/maintained.)

And I'm still sucking off the grid for the A/C compressor and drier - though I will admit the past couple month's electric bills have been a third of what they were last year! (Though it won't last. Last September we averaged 70.6kWhs a day - which averages out to just under 3000Whs per hour. Even doubling my battery storage won't cover half that load! So far my best solar charge day with sixteen panels has been 16.24kWhs, so maxing out my system with 24 panels would still be just a third of the power used.)

Though if things get bad I may have to pick up a couple window units and manage my power differently ("Hey! Kill your A/C so I can run the microwave!" )

Hey it's little steps so you can learn about how things work. Work out what your priorities are for needs like lightning and make a small system to handle that. One of the Harbor Freight jump starters with 60 watts of solar panels and a charge controller will power power 12 volt led lights for a very long time.

Something I should point out, as someone mentioned amazon in another comment. Be very carefull where the items are coming from, chineasium has been getting worse and worse, and that place is well known for selling garbage using really flaking advertising. Heck, half the stuff, even if its the actual thing you ordered, is still broken or unusable. Lest that has been my experence with them. Got a set of chairs not too long ago, out of 4, only one was able to be assimbled, the rest, the bolt holes are in the wrong place.

Which was one of the reasons I just got more of the same things I bought the first time - and as before I have a 'test' setup in the back yard where I check the panels before they go on the roof and check/charge the batteries before I try to use them. (and that was another reason for getting them through Amazon - a good return policy and letting Amazon fight them on any bad bits! )

Had a solar/battery system in Alaska, 8 200lb forklift batteries and 8 solar panels... FYI they don't work at -40F in alaska also don't work well in the Winter months, in the summer didn't get dark so didn't need to charge the batteries, so ran a generator during the day, then ran off of batteries at night with generator off, ran that setup for 12 years

These batteries are also worthless at 40 below, need to be kept above freezing to charge. And I've watched my batteries drop as the load gets to be more than the panels can provide.

Oh, BTW: https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/10206375

one thing I did with system I had is 300 gallon water tank installed 10 feet up for gravity feed, also propane hot water heater, oven/stove and dryer, toyostove oil fired heaters with 92% efficiency 3 to 5 watts running and 300 watt ignition cycle to reduce electrical load, had 8 200lb batteries this was in the 80's so was best I could get and a 4,500 watt trace inverter, still had to run a generator as in winter.

Yeah, back then it took a lot more to get where you wanted to be.

Natural gas for heat/hot water/cooking so my winters aren't quite as power hungry, but if the whole grid goes down there won't be any pumps running for gas or water - which will make things 'interesting' ...

I did add eight more panels to bring me up to 5kWs on the roof, and another dozen batteries bringing me up to 30kWhs of storage - still using that 6kW inverter.

Best sun day so far saw the panels give me just over 22kWhs of free power in one day. On the flip side, a couple of cloudy days in a row forced me to switch the main house back to the grid.

I'm thinking of getting a pair of small window A/Cs to cool just the bedrooms (already having a week of 100+F this week in SATX!) in case the mains go down (rolling blackouts already being suggested from our power company), the window units won't be much more of a draw than the central system already is.

I had 6 100lb propane bottles about 2.5 years of propane then had 900 gallons of #1 heating oil/diesel, one thing for cooling is buried large water tank, then pump water through swamp coolers use very little electricity. works great unless your in a drought area then could use large radiator as heat exchanger and pump water back into underground tank that will stay cool won't cool as much but no water waste. Had my own well for water.