PowerSwitch

I want to buy some cheap PV to add supplemental heating to our eco house.
It would also be used now and then with an inverter to run various household items, tools etc.

We live in the cloudy Midlands.

So .. has anyone any advice of what type/style of PV panels etc I should be looking at?

I have £2k - £4k to spend.

Battery storage is required for high priority loads during a power outage. But battery storage seldom makes sense for electric heating, electricity that has been cycled through a battery is almost certainly too expensive to use for heating.

Therefore consider an off grid battery charging system in which heating is used as a dump load when the battery is full. Store the heat as hot water.

24 volt battery of say 400 AH.---------------------------About £500, flooded lead acid.
Charge controller------------------------------------------About £100
3 kw inverter-----------------------------------------------About £400, price and quality varies a lot !
Diversion load controller not sure, have not purchased any recently.

Pv modules, as much as money or mounting space permits.

The battery will only have a reliable life of 5 years, presuming frequent shallow discharges and no more than a dozen deep discharges over 5 years.
The charge controller and the inverter should hopefully last 10 years, maybe longer with luck.
The PV modules should last almost forever.