I'm.No.One
Member
I'd recommend the new lithium wall pack batteries versus the deep cell. Deep cells are prone to losing charge & constantly need topped up with distilled water. The new packs don't need that, they're good for 15+ years.
As far as how big of a system is you have to calculate your individual load. That's where you take the amps required of every appliance you want to run, add it all up, & get a system that can handle that much.
I'll tell ya right now if you want something that will do your 220V items (stove/dryer) it's going to be a 15k+ system.
But for a few newer chest freezers/lights/outlets you could probably diy it for around 8k.
You can start small and add on as you go too with more panels/batteries.
It's also worth checking with your county to see if they have any solar incentive programs some of these are tax write-offs some of these full-on pay for solar panels to be installed. Typically these are grid tide but the beauty about this is you get the panels for very cheaper free through your county or your town solar program then you just have to buy what they call a switch and some batteries hire some random person to come install them for you and if the grid goes down you can flip that switch and start catching power in your batteries versus feeding it back into the grid.
When you do feed it back into the grid they typically deduct money off of your power bill in the summertime or whenever you're helping your meter go backwards.
Editing to say:
Any new panel is fine it's more about the batteries and such needing to be a decent quality, sure you can buy more expensive panels but my dad (who's been doing solar installation since it became a thing for the city that we live in & is a 45+ year master electrician) says people are just paying for brand names when they buy fancy panels these days.
Of course the more kilowatts a panel can produce the less panels you have to have.
