The build

Ok, THIS WILL get boring.
The set up we are getting is a 4kw solar array with a 3.6kw hybrid inverter, grid tied and coupled to a 16.1kWh battery.
What this means .. obviously the solar panels will produce power when there is sufficient brightness, in reality that means April to October in our northern latitudes.
This power then goes to a hybrid inverter (Sunsync ECCO 3.6kw) which either converts it to 240v and feeds it to the house, uses it to charge our battery (fogstar energy 16.1kWh 48v) or sends it to the grid.
The other thing the inverter will do is provide power during a powercut, now because we only have a 3.6kw inverter it can't power the whole house (boiling a kettle will use 3kw) but we are planning on hooking it to the ring main that powers the lounge and 2 bedrooms so we will be able to have a couple of standard lamps, TV, router while the powers out. This I think will switch automatically once the grid power shuts off.
During the months of darkness will will theoretically be able to charge the battery overnight on cheap rate electric, however due to the shear incompetence of the idiots in charge of smart meters we don't receive the signal that allows our smart meter to be smart, this means we can't access the smart tarrifs offered by the likes of octopus energy. We are in discussions with our provider to get this sorted but thats another total nightmare that I won't get into.
So you'd think we would get paid for the excess electric that we send back to the grid but that can only happen if you use an MCS registerd installer, because of where we live that would cost a fortune so we are self installing and our electrician is doing all the important techie stuff and signing it off for us. I really can't work out why the power went supply is worth nothing when if we had someone else install the panels it would be worth about 15p per unit.
Costs for this are (very approximately)
8 solar panels - £500
Inverter - £800
Battery - £2200
Other bits and pieces - £250
Electrician - £ unkonwn cos he's not done it yet ?
Hope that clarifies nothing

Paul says thank you (with enthusiasm)  not boring at all. Extremely fascinating and please let us know how you get on.

P is jealous of the 16kw battery and agrees that the smart meter bods are idiots, he's had several arguments in that area.

We have the option of adding more battery units to this if the figures add up once we finally start using the system
When we first looked at this about 4 years ago the battery would have been several thousand more, prices have dropped so much in the last couple of years