Hi Williamsk913!
Looking forward to your future posts, always good to hear from folks that put together systems and used them in rugged conditions like yours. You learn a lot of practical things that way.
Just as an FYI since you're in the U.S. Currently there is a 30% tax credit if you get solar installed this year, next year it goes down to 26%; so hard to find a price cheaper than that. The TVA also may still have some sweet deals (they used to give you $1000 and $.12/kWh). But google solar incentives for city/county/state to see what's what.
What some are doing is to get a small system installed now; something they can afford. Then they save the building permit information and watch/learn from the installer. Later, as they can afford it, they can then add onto the system. The big concern when doing this is not locking yourself into something that isn't scalable. So, if you decide you want to go that way and aren't sure just start a thread asking folks what the think or have done.
