Anyone on here ever install a solar power system?

I'm thinking of doing it. I have a barn up north. The south side would be an ideal spot to mount the panels. I can put the controls in the barn. I'd use the power just for LED lights in the barn and run a cord to the garage for some LED lights there too, and a separate underground line to the house. I'm not going to hook it to the grid. They want too much to do that. I'm thinking I'd run the power to a small hot water heater and just collect the excess that way. Most of my electric bill right now is for hot water. If I had extra power left over I suppose I could use it for heat in the barn or house in the winter. Same idea, a small hot water heater and a coil of copper tubing. Fill it with propylene glycol and let it go. I'd leave the grid stuff for outlets. It wouldn't need to be a big system. The barn is 30 feet wide so what is that, 8-10 panels? I thinks that's about 1 kW peak. It's 30 feet tall so I can add more panels if the inverter can handle them.

mounting hardware, wire, Panels, inverter, breakers, and breaker box

That's probably around $2-5K??