That's $48K in total, what kind of gold-plated solar panels are those? I installed 8 panels and a battery (to future-proof it, this isn't bringing in money yet) earlier this year for €8700. Yield currently on a sunny day is 20-25 kWh and covers my bill completely.
Never think in terms of monthly payments. Think in terms of how much money they're actually asking you for. That's how they get you to consider $50k solar panels lmao
I think solar panels are a great investment, but I agree with the other commenters. How many quotes did you get? Does that include a battery wall? Capacity to sell back to the grid?
Not sure if you'll have any advice on this, but I'm helping my neighbor change his front lawn into a native plant garden, and planning to include a little water feature with a pump running off a solar panel. I've barely begun researching any of this part (been lugging dirt and cinderblocks from our local Everything is Free page), but I always try for used stuff first. If you have any recommendations I'd love to hear them.
if the water feature is really tiny, then the pump and panel taken out of one of those decorative countertop fountains – but that isn’t going to be able to power much more than a soothing trickle …
next stage up would probably be something like pool cover pumps and pool drain pumps – but don’t know if those would be any cheaper than proper pond pumps that are designed to be run unmaintained for long periods of time
For the pump, maybe you could look into (secondhand) aquarium pumps? They're meant to be constantly running. Flow rate is fixed though, so you'll have to decide the size if your pond first.
Might be worth getting a hybrid system that includes solar-thermal for hot water (maybe supplemented with a heat-pump). That will likely reduce your power-bill a lot and then you don't need such a big solar PV system.
Of course running a huge AC for the entire house will require an unreasonably large and expensive solar system...
financed solar panels can make selling your house really complicated. you'll have to find a buyer who will take on the contract and not everyone is excited about another house related monthly expense. i've heard enough bad things that i would only do solar panels if i paid for them upfront.