800-1000w is a lot. Is that figuring florescents? Figure a 180w solar panel is going to run you ~$450 and you'd want at least 500w of panels, 3 panels gives you 540w. Then you'd want something like 8000wh of batteries which would only give you 4 hours of run time at 50% usage. At 12v thats 667ah of battery, basically 6 of the big marine batteries at ~$90 apiece. The inverter is actually pretty cheap, figure you want something ~1500 watt continuous which will give some extra surge power.
So: $1500 - solar panels $540 - batteries $300 - inverter $300 - charge controller $2640 total
There will be some extra of course and I've undersized the solar array but you could always add on later or use a gas generator to float the batteries every couple days depending on how much you run them down and what the weather has been like.
Finally theres probably $1500 - $2000 in misc stuff, mounting the panels, wiring and whatnot.
It seems to me its smart to buy the biggest panels you can afford and have a relatively small number of them. I see kits that do 800w in 10x 80w solar panels. I'd rather use 5x 180w panels to do the same job...
So really the big thing for you to think about is "can I cut down on the power used?" Traditional thinking is that each $1 of conservation is worth $5 of production...
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Today's Featured Article - A Lifetime of Farm Machinery - by Joe Michaels. I am a mechanical engineer by profession, specializing in powerplant work. I worked as a machinist and engine erector, with time spent overseas. I have always had a love for machinery, and an appreciation for farming and farm machinery. I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Not a place one would associate with farms or farm machinery. I credit my parents for instilling a lot of good values, a respect for learning, a knowledge of various skills and a little knowledge of farming in me, amo
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