What I have learned that makes a big difference. #1 Monocrystalline solar panels that have a high cell number that equals a higher voltage output than your batteries need, my 195 watt panels have 72 cells and put out at least 36 volts in full sunlight, I have four banks of two panels in series and I have seen up to 80 volts produced by this solar array. This is in no way overkill for a 24 volt battery system because of #2 which is an MPPT solar controller, mine is from Morningstar and it's good for 60 amps or 1,600 watts from a solar array, my solar controller can take up to 150 volts from the array and through switch settings can put out 12, 24, 36 or 48 volts to charge the batteries. #3 I use a pure sinewave inverter/charger, the output is cleaner than grid power and is very good for sensitive electronics in our home, it also makes motors run better and produces less heat in them, the Inverter/charger we use is a Magnum Energy 4,000 watt 120/240 model that can be stacked with up to four units for over 16,000 watts, I found that I could get by with just one inverter and it's capable of taking care of two large refrigerators and two chest freezers, one large and one small, also lights and celling fans. It could also run a washing machine. #4 Think small when designing what your solar system will run in the house, we have designed our system really just to run the basics, not the water heater or the clothes dryer, both of which are high wattage demands. When I put our system on the line, I found that because we had gotten the high voltage output panels we were getting better outputs than I had figured on, even on a cloudy-rainy day I was getting enough voltage and amperage to charge the battery bank and run the inverter, I've seen the system charge even when the sun was close to being down. If your plan is to run the whole house, it's going to be very costly. One other recommendation I have is that you find solar equipment suppliers close to you because you can save $100's of dollars by picking up supplies yourself, shipping is very expensive and we figure we saved at least $400 or more. The solar panels and solar controller we bought were from Grapesolar in Eugene, Oregon and just north of Eugene is where we got our inverter/charger, from Don Rowe. I have found that packaged systems can be rather expensive over a system that you are able to design, educating yourself will go a long way to saving you a lot of money. I gained much of what I have learned from AM Solar, also in Eugene, they make systems for motor homes and following what they told me I installed a very good system on our motor home, the last time we used it out on the desert in northern Nevada we stayed out six weeks and only had to charge the house batteries once by running the engine due to a very cloudy day. The best of luck on your project.