[svandamme]

at this point, i doubt it would be worth the investment without the subsidies.
The reason why i did it now, is because our gubmint is looking to find money for the 2012 budget.. and i fear the subsidies will be gone next year.

Not sure how much electricity costs in your area, or how the grid works there.
But here, the solar PV setup doesn't work if the grid is down. There are no batteries, so it has to shutdown if it can't work with the grid.


You live in a more rural area, right ? so you'de probably need a more grid indifferent setup.
Batteries, but that's a completely different story anyway.

Either way, the first thing to do, is reduce your electrical and other energy needs. The less electricity you need, the lower your PV investment will be. you mentioned AC in your garage. Well if you gotta install PV panels to run AC, you gonna need more then is cost effective.
Ideally you should insulate the snot ouf of the place so you don't need to heat much in winter, nor cool it in summer. The initial cost of that will be lower then PV and reduce more then it would cost to produce that power with PV..