My family moved into a house that came with solar power panels but they are not connected and don't really understand how to even begin.
You will need help with this. Panels may or may not be 24 volt. If you can find a name tag, you can find out from the manufacturer's web site. Some folks hook them all in parallel. Mine are in series, to create 480 volts. the reason for going to higher voltage is to reduce power loss in the wiring. Even then, I used a wire size larger than recommended. The frames want to be interconnected, and wired to ground. The live conductors connect through disconnect switches to an inverter. The inverter is sized to the output of the panels. Where the utility allows net metering, the inverters are connected through a disconnect switch to the grid, which of course also feeds the house. Assuming you are on the grid, you will not need batteries. If outages severely impact you, you can have batteries. Counting against them is that they are costly, and use part of the power you generate, just to keep them charged. If you have batteries, it is usually best to rewire circuits so noncritical circuits are disconnected during outages. Leaving perhaps minimal lighting, fridge, freezer and critical medical circuits. Learn all you can from the Internet (try solar panels), and from the green search box above. Be sure to see if your state has a rebate program, and the conditions which it requires.
You need to know some electrical basics. You need to check if they are still working and determine the output voltage with the use of testers. They are just part of a system that includes other equipments as well like a controller, car batteries, inverters, diodes.
