Awesome - well done! I'm guessing with 8 panels that's about a 1.4kW system? We've recently had a 1.9kW system plus solar hot water installed - we're generating about a maximum of 7.5kW p/day on a full sun day (winter in Cairns, east facing panels on a 16 degree sloping roof). Yesterday - overcast with light rain all day - we generated about 2kW, but had to put the solar hot water booster on. We use about 8-9kW per day, including our pool filter and electric cooking, so we're getting about 80% of our power covered.

As for price - when the Green Loans program finished prices dropped significantly, as many installers couldn't be competitive. The RECs price is also higher than what it was a year ago, and still includes the 5x multiplier on the first 1.5kW of a system, but as this replaced the Solar Homes & Communities Rebate program (which was the $8000 rebate) the effective rebate is about 1/2 of what it used to be. So prices have dropped massively even just in the last six months as installers struggle. Don't get me started about the massive f-up the implementation and subsequent cancellation of the Green Loans program was for both the community and the industry.

The other thing affecting price is quality - there are a lot of cheaper Chinese manufactured panels and inverters on the market and whilst they offer really competitive warranty terms, this may not be as reliable as using an established product, as one may not be able to access the warranty if the installer business goes belly up within the warranty terms. Whereas with the more established brands, even if the installer is no longer running one can still access the warranty directly via the manufacturer. The other issue is cost of inverter and future expandability - inverters that are expandable (ours is expandable up to 18 panels, for example) are more expensive than smaller capacity inverters.