Stone coated metal roofs are becoming more and more popular in Florida. They are universally praised as being beautiful, durable, and highly wind resistant. With very long warranties and concerns about hurricane resistance, it is reasonable to expect these roofs to be purchased by more and more homeowners. Installing solar panels on these roofs presents challenges. The only good way to …
Flow Rates and Flow Balancing Explained
Recently one of our competitors has been telling prospective solar pool heating clients that plumbing, valve, and panel header size don’t matter. In fact, they are even saying smaller is better. Does that make sense? It’s just nonsense, and we want to set the record straight. We use all 2 inch PVC pipe, valves, and full 2 inch inside diameter …
Solar Panel Design to Reality – Visualize Projects in 3D
When designing solar panel layouts, we do everything in three dimensions. This helps us and clients visualize the final product much better. It also improves accuracy. This video demonstrates a real project that we laid out in 3D and turned it into a reality at a home in Southwest Florida. We did a “fly-over” animation using our 3D computer model …
Solar Pool Heating for High Rise Condo Pool
Southwest Florida is not exactly Manhattan, but there are lots of beachfront high rise condos with swimming pools. We frequently get calls from owners in the building seeking information on solar pool heating for their condo swimming pool. The client is usually a board member or a concerned unit owner trying to reign in the cost of pool heating with …
Aerial Video of Alva, FL Home Solar Electricity System
Check out this aerial video of a stunning Alva, FL property where we installed solar panels to provide electricity for the home. The system is expected to offset all of the home’s modest electricity use. With 18 solar panels rated at 365 watts each, this 6.57kW system is expected to produce over 10 megawatt-hours of electricity per year. It is …
Enabling Enphase Production Alerts For Your Solar Electricity System Monitoring
If you have a solar electricity system with Enphase microinverters, you probably already know how great the web monitoring portal is. One of the best features is the ability to be notified if your system is not producing the energy expected. This could happen due to a tripped circuit breaker, component failure, shading, or any number of other things. While rare, …
New Product Announcement: Solaria PowerXT Solar AC Module
February 1, 2019 We are pleased to announce that we are offering the Solaria PowerXT solar module now. This premium solar module combines a cutting edge microinverter from Enphase with a high-efficiency solar module into a factory assembled AC module. Household AC power is produced right at the panel with no separate power conditioning device to convert DC to AC. …
Free Solar Panels for Your Home Advertised
Our phones have been ringing off the hook due to advertisements for free solar panels (not ours). These ads say you can get solar panels installed at no cost for your home. They are billed as special programs to get more people to install solar energy. The claims are amazing! There is only one problem: It’s totally fake news! The shady …
Continuously Improving Solar Pool Heaters
Most of the solar pool heating clients we visit immediately realize that we have a better product. But we are never satisfied just because we have the best solar pool heating system on the market, installed using the best methods and components. To be absolutely clear, while the panels themselves are important, the entire system is equally important. This includes …
Pool Heat Pumps Use Lots of Electricity
Despite the claims of heat pump sellers that say all kinds of crazy things, heat pump are not cheap to operate. Our favorite is that heat pumps “cost about a dollar a day to operate.” Let’s be clear: it’s not true. At a minimum, it’s very misleading. You see, there are all kinds of caveats to these claims about when …
Solar Pool Heating How To Video Released
For our valued customers, we have released a solar pool heating how-to video that we call our Solar 101 video. This video is applicable to all past and future customers. Note that the section on valves will be most relevant to installations performed after March 2018 when we started pre-manufacturing our valve manifolds. However, our installations prior to this date …
Stunning Views of Sanibel Photovoltaic System
Check out the stunning views of this home with solar panels on Sanibel Island.
Why You Need A Local Solar Contractor
I recently received a request from a friend of a friend to provide advice about installing solar panels at her new home in Denmark. I am a people-pleaser – always one to help. But solar contracting is so specific to the country, state, and even city in which you live. I was able to provide some general help, but ultimately …
Cape Coral Photovoltaic System Aerial Video
This 15kW solar electricity system was installed in Cape Coral under close management by Florida Solar Design Group. We are thrilled to have been a part of offsetting 100% of the owner’s annual utility electricity use. The system is comprised of:
PV Shopping Quick Tip: Ask The Right Question!
When shopping for solar electric panels (photovoltaic or PV), most clients first ask what brand of panel we offer. While it’s a legitimate question, it’s not the most important question they should be asking. Solar panels have become extremely reliable and purchasing from an established source should yield good results. Solar panels are solid state devices with no moving parts …
Solar Panels With Multiple Meters at Facility
Many businesses and some homes have multiple utility meters that record energy use in different buildings or groups of buildings. This presents a challenge for solar panel installations. The current Netmetering Rule in Florida treats each utility meter as a separate customer. Even though your business entity may be the same, the utility company bills you separately for usage on each …
How NOT to Use Solar Panels to Market Your Business
I love Kettle Brand Potato Chips. It’s the kind of love that let’s me empty a whole bag in one sitting. I picked up a bag of the Backyard Barbeque flavor today at Ada’s Natural Market in Fort Myers, and when I got home I noticed that they advertise their use of solar panels on the back of the bag. …
True 2 Inch Solar Panel Headers
Jump right to the bottom of this post if you just want the proof! We have been over flow rates on this blog ad nauseam, but for good reason. Flow is critical to solar pool heating performance. One of the most important factors affecting flow rates in solar panels is the header pipe and plumbing size. One of our competitors …
Florida Solar Co-op Information
Solar cooperatives, or co-ops, are organizations set up to empower neighbors to get the best prices and products when buying solar panels for homes and businesses. The concept is that pooled interest will result in lower prices, peace-of-mind in selecting a contractor, and pre-screened products. There are advantages to solar co-ops in Florida, but there are also serious potential drawbacks …
Solar Pool Heater Plumbing – Before or After Gas and Electric Heaters
There is a certain way that all solar pool heaters should be integrated into the plumbing of a new or existing pool. Solar panels are always installed after the pool filter and a series of vales controls operation. One of the questions we get is whether we plan to install the solar pool heater before or after an existing gas …