Hi there.
First, I'm sorry if this question is completely stupid .

I recently found this web site and thought I'd post a question here. I'm moving to the Tampa, FL area this month and am considering installing solar panels on my roof but have some questions.

To actually come close to providing enough power for my home (3300 sq feet), I'd probably have to spend between $20,000 and $30,000 (a very rough guess). I'm wondering if it's not possible to do this a piece at a time (sort of). Basically, I would purchase the necessary equipment to drive what I feel would be the maximum load for my house, then start off with (say) half a dozen solar panels. Enough power to start off with. Then, every month or so I'd purchase another couple of panels and add them to the system. Is such an idea feasible or totally half-baked?

I've been feverishly reading as much material as I can on solar electricity but have found VERY few people, or companies, that seem to be able to provide consumer services.

Not half baked at all. That is the way a lot of people do it. just make shure you start with a good charge controller like the outback mx 60 and get your self one good inverter or 2 if really needed but you can start with one like a outback unit or a xantrex sw unit and they stack together to make 240 volts or to double amps. then just add as you can afford it. You may find the 30,000 dollar mark is way high if you can conserve some using compact flourescents and such. but if you start with a good foundation you can expand all you need to check out outbacks stuff at www.outbackpower.com they have some pretty impresive stuff

Do I even require a charge controller if I'm not going to have battery storage? I was considering a grid-tie system only for now. Is it possible to add the charge controller later?

Your First decision will be whether you want to have the system grid-tie or not

The MX60 is a charge controller, for battery based systems. My two systems and the large majority of solar systems today are calling Gridtie.

They are battery less, the PV panels output is directly converted to grid power via the inverter. You can have Gridtie and battery backup as well, these are the rarest systems, there not as efficient as battery less Gridtie, they cost allot more do to the batteries.

I'd suggest you start by reading http://www.homepower.com they usually have examples of real systems in every months issues


Starting small is fine ... that's a major advantage of 48 volt nominal systems; the Suntie is really the only inverter available in the class. In larger systems , they have what is know as string inverters , the input voltage is 150-600 volts depending on the inverter , they are more efficient but requires 2-4 times more panels for the smallest configuration

You could also do a mix of battery and battery-less like mine. One of my inverters is a Suntie which is grid tie only and my other inverter is a SW which is grid tie and stand alone.

You could have one inverter with batteries that is large enough for your important loads durring a power outage and the rest of the inverters could be battery-less for feeding the grid only.

dbixler,
If you don't mind the traffic, you should love the Tampa area, I used to live there and it's a pretty area. Lots of sun, so solar is always a good bet there, as long as you can come up with a lot that's big enough to allow exposure to the sun. The houses there tend to be pretty close together, so you may end up with a roof-mounted system in order to clear surrounding obstacles and gain full exposure.
There so many variables to putting a system together. I'd recommend that you concentrate first on planning the system, right down to the cable sizes and charge controllers. The guys in these forums are such a great help with that.

My personal experience has been that some Solar dealers (and understand that I'm in Maine, not Florida) tend to try to sell you what they have sitting on their shelves and ignore every word you utter regarding the planned size of a system. Even if there's a remote chance that this is true in your area, you'll want to know what it is you're doing before you invest any real money. In this case, knowledge is money, both you and your system will benefit from some good planning. Take it from me, there's no worse experience than having to go through your system later and take out pieces of equipment you trusted were right for what you planned, and paying for new, correct equipment.
As Florida is the sunshine state, I'm sure that Solar is much more prevalent there and that there must be a greater number of Solar dealers there, and you're probably going to find some good, capable folks. But it never hurts to spend some time learning about this, it can save you time, money, and trouble in the future. Once you have a good, working system and it's growing, it's a great feeling.

Jim