
Why Battery Backup Without Solar Is a Legitimate Option in Florida
You Don’t Always Need Solar Panels to Justify a Battery Backup System Most people assume that home battery storage only makes sense when it is paired with a solar panel
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Florida Solar Design Group stands out as the premier solar panel contractor and installer in Southwest Florida, prioritizing education and consultation for solar electricity, grid-tied battery backup, off-grid solar solutions, and innovative solar pool heating strategies.
NABCEP Certified PV Installation Professional (PVIP)
Top Solar Electricity & Solar Pool Heating Dealer
Jason Szumlanski, the only NABCEP Certified PV Installation Professional (PVIP) in Southwest Florida, epitomizes industry standards with his deep knowledge, lengthy experience, and business integrity.
Dominick’s extensive solar consulting experience ensures precise product selection for our customers’ energy needs, with a focus on finding the right solution for the client’s specific situation.

Solar panels can power your entire home or reduce your electricity bill by offsetting utility usage, saving you money year-round with or without battery backup.

Grid-interactive solar needs battery backup during low solar output. Compatible batteries offer uninterrupted power solutions.

Solar panels and a heat pump can efficiently heat a pool, saving money and reducing carbon footprint.

Solar panels warm your pool economically all year, providing comfortable water temperature as it passes through, without added costs.













You Don’t Always Need Solar Panels to Justify a Battery Backup System Most people assume that home battery storage only makes sense when it is paired with a solar panel

Plug-in solar panels are the hottest thing in European energy. Germany alone has over a million registered balcony solar systems. You buy a panel and a microinverter online for a

Most solar equipment manufacturers handle warranty claims the same way. You call support. You troubleshoot over the phone. They ship you a replacement unit. Your installer pulls the old one

Did you know that building codes and fire standards limit your battery capacity when installing an Energy Storage System (ESS)? This comes as a surprise to some clients, especially those

Tesla Has a Math Problem Every Tesla Powerwall 3 holds 13.5 kWh of usable energy storage. Six of them hold 81 kWh. And 81 kWh is one kilowatt-hour over the

A homeowner reached out to our office recently, genuinely worried. His utility bills were high. The solar system’s app showed strong production: nearly 11,900 kilowatt-hours generated over five months. But

Somebody knocked on a client’s door last week and told her she could have solar panels for zero dollars down, zero dollars out of pocket, and zero change to her

The wife wanted air conditioning at night. The husband wanted to deliver on that promise. Their ten-year-old off-grid solar system would not let them, and worse, they had no way

Another giant solar company has crashed and burned. Freedom Forever, reportedly the second-largest residential solar installer in the U.S. as of 2025, filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware this week.

LCEC has a rate structure quirk that almost nobody talks about, and it is worth real money to high-usage households. Here is the short version: install even a single solar
There is a reason FSDG has 200+ 5-star reviews. Whenever I make a significant investment, I like to first do my due diligence, especially when I have no knowledge... ... of the product. That generally means internet research with multiple bids and discussions, etc. I first contacted FSDG based on all the overwhelming positive reviews. Dominic returned my call promptly and we met a few days later. He is so enthusiastic about solar energy that it is infectious. He and his business partner (Jason) have been in the business the better part of 20 years and they are intimately familiar with all aspects of solar energy from the makeup of the panels (silicon), to their efficiency (generally able to process 20% of solar energy into usable energy), and where they are produced (Texas). I learned about alternating and direct currents and about micro-inverters. I had already made the decision, but the team of Dominick and Jason made that so much easier. They took care of everything from the permits, to the install, to the follow up with FPL to get me “on-line”. And, by the way, their bid was significantly more competitive than other bids we received. I still enjoy looking at my energy production app on a daily basis to watch my ROI in real time. Thank you Dominic, Jason, and Florida Solar Design Group for bringing me into the 21st century!
Florida Solar Design Group was incredibly helpful from the initial phone call to final install. If I had any questions they answered them immediately. I was extremely pleased with the... ... whole process and Jason, one of the owners, was on top of everything. I recommend them highly. No need to shop for solar panels, this is the only place to go and trust me I shopped around!
Florida Solar Design Group provided excellent service throughout our installation. During the design phase, they addressed all of our questions and provided multiple customized options so that we could choose... ... the system that works best for us. They made the permitting, HOA approval, and FPL net metering processes as easy as possible. Installation went very smoothly, and the end products looks great and is producing the expected output. FSDG communicated with us throughout the process and met or exceeded all of their commitments. I am completely satisfied with FSDG’s work and would highly recommend them to anyone looking for a solar installation.
I am not sure I can fully convey my satisfaction with Florida Solar Design Group and its owner Jason, but I will try. I began my solar 'adventure' while... ... constructing my new house, I thought I could 'do it myself' after all I was building my own house. Long story short after purchasing panels and inverter online and keeping them in storage before I was anywhere near to starting I wisely decided its not a DIY project, at least not for me. I wish to share my full experience, but not everyone maybe interested, if you feel inclined read on to the end. When looking to install Solar at a minimum do yourself a favor and speak to Jason. I highly recommend speaking with him after (or better - before) any sales pitch from another vendor - he will not give you a 'sales pitch' he will listen to your wants, tell you what is possible and at what cost. What is 'realistic' and what isn't. I think we have come to expect that solar is just something easy to do, slap some panels on a roof and your golden, but if you want more than just something offsetting your power, like solar power when we lose power (and who doesn't want that in SWFL) battery backup etc. it gets pretty complicated quickly. Experience and knowledge matters, not everyone can do it or has gained the knowledge to do it SAFELY. From my experience with Jason he has probably forgotten more stuff than some other installers even know, and his crews have many years of experience also. Always call Jason & FSDG you will learn a lot - and learning and being knowledgeable is very important when going solar to make sure you have a satisfactory experience and no regrets. So now for the full story of my install, Back in May of 21 I reached out to some installers and Jason was 1 of 2 that came to my construction site. I was immediately impressed with Jason's knowledge and he was frank and honest about what I had purchased, what was 'missing' (a fair bit) and what I could expect, of course this was less than my initial expectations. We kept in touch as the house was built, I sent some equipment back and with Jason's instructions ordered some other parts. My house construction was not going the smoothest (covid etc.) and the electrician just wasn't understanding what my plans were but we had sold our old home and needed to move in quickly so we finished up the house 'standard' then after another meeting with Jason came up with an electrical plan for what we really wanted which included adding panels for a larger system (my first pool home and I had no idea what those suckers run especially when heating them). After some further delay (NOT FSDG related) about a month ago we were ready for Jason and his crew. Jason came back out again (I think that may have been 6th time and there were countless emails) to confirm everything was ready and all the parts (his and mine) were ready, he got us on his schedule almost immediately. On a very hot Monday one crew ran the wiring in the attic while another was on the roof setting up and wiring the racks. It was a REALLY hot day on a metal roof, the wiring and inverter were ready to go but it was just too hot (southern and western exposure of course) to finish in one day - the poor guys probably lost 10lbs in water weight. Next morning bright and early they were back to finish the panels 50 of them in total. Jason came by a little later to supervise the final installing and hook ups and to make sure everything was right then by 12:30 he allowed me to turn it on - I don't think I have ever been happier to do almost nothing - its kind of surreal seeing the screen on inverter showing solar power and no grid power coming in. No noises of machinery, no bells and whistles just silent power to run all the other noisy stuff. I have batteries for partial backup and I look forward to figuring out my usage and getting ready for when I know the power will go out at some point - I am ready and in no small part thanks to Jason and FSDG. Thank you Jason & FSDG
The team were all dialed in. Prompt service and accurate timeline. Best price around. Very highly recommended.
Outstanding experience from beginning to end with Florida Solar Design Group. Dominick Zito was very responsive in meeting with us and designing the appropriately sized system for our needs. Susan... ... handled all the permitting and FPL applications, and Jason was onsite for the installation and to ensure everything was working properly. Jason was in constant contact with me throughout the installation, reviewed how everything worked and got me setup on the Enphase app so we can both monitor the system performance. I would highly recommend going solar with Florida Solar Design Group.
FSDG went above and beyond the call of duty to diagnose and correct major safety problems that were caused by our original installer. (they not only incorrectly installed but... ... then they refused to fix safety issues since they said "it passed inspection"). WE ARE SO THANKFUL FOR FSDG. THEY MAY HAVE SAVED OUR LIVES!
Super company! The customer service couldn't have been better. They made everything run smoothly and were very responsive to any of our questions.
Great system, and great people who continue to respond in a timely manner to all questions.
The Florida Solar Design Group installed our rooftop solar system to power our new headquarters building. Their staff were very helpful, courteous, and professional. They handled our project from start... ... to finish and we could not be happier with the install. I highly recommend the Florida Solar Design Group. - James
Highly recommend this company! We have been working with Dominick and Jason for a while now when they installed our solar years ago. They made the whole process seamless,... ... explained everything in detail to us. Since then they have been servicing our solar and are always so wonderful to work with. Responsive, quick, and always a pleasure to work with. Recently we had Manny come out to do a technical repair and he was just as great to work with.
We originally had a photovoltaic system installed in 2007 by a company no longer in business. Now in 2025, we installed a home generator, so our electrical panel and the... ... photovoltaic connection had to be reconfigured to safely accommodate both systems. I found Florida Solar Design Group via Google. I was impressed by the stellar reviews and informative website - obviously, this company leans into research - an important component of an evolving industry. From my initial contact, their rapid response and the professional expertise of Jason Szumlanski & team resulted in safety issues solved, disconnecting and then reconnecting our system once the generator was installed. Even their work contract is clear & easy to understand. All at a very reasonable price. Highly recommend FSDG!
I am writing to highly recommend Florida Solar Design Group. My wife and I had a new system installed recently by another installer. It uses Enphase inverters and includes an... ... app to track system performance. We began to realize that the system probably wasn't performing correctly and reached out to our installer. Who ignored our repeated calls and emails. Over a frustrating few weeks we learned that our installer had cut corners. Looking for the best way forward, we contacted Florida Solar Design Group. Jason Szumlanski returned my initial call to their office within an hour or so. He is easy to talk to because he listens well and then responds clearly and directly to what he hears. He is intelligent, articulate and informative and his expertise became clear very quickly. After about 10 minutes of talking, Jason said that he was pretty confident that he understood the problem and the solution, and he said he would call me back soon. Within the hour, he called back and confirmed that he had been able to tweak our system remotely to correct the issue that we had identified. He then explained that we would be wise to have him look over the install to ensure that there were no other problems. He said that he would not charge for his time, only for materials that might be needed. We agreed (of course!) On site, Jason assured us that the installer had provided a good system, but he also showed us how the workmanship was somewhat sloppy and that it also revealed their lack of experience with the Enphase equipment. Spending about two hours on site, Jason reinstalled the consumption metering hardware, double checked the rest of the install and then completed the software update so that the system was, finally, fully functional. I am very grateful for Jason's assistance. More than that, I am amazed that he took the time to do this, for free, simply because he wanted to help. From the beginning of our first phone call to the end of his visit to our house, his intention was to solve our issues. The whole experience was amazingly good: he returned calls just as promised, he arrived at our house on schedule, he was thorough on site with great attention to detail, and through it all he was efficient but unhurried, committed to quality, informative and pleasant. I urge anyone who is looking into solar installations to include Florida Solar Design Group in their list of people to speak with.
These guys are the best of the best. My battery install came out clean and professional. They even corrected all of the issues the original installer created. Overall, great price... ... with amazing installers. Can't go wrong.
I stared this project as replacement for solar pool heater panels and ended with 27 solar panels and couldn’t be happier. We approached Florida Solar Design Group as I had... ... liked working with Dominick at his prior firm and trusted his advice. Absolutely no pressure, very educational all the way. Their proposal was more professional and transparent compared to the other proposals I had received. After a lot of research a few changes and a very patient sales team, we had a deal. I felt the best price from the most professional company. Every step of the way, FSDG performed as they said they would a head of schedule all done in the most professional way. That would be thanks to Susan!. Even FPL and Collier county performed ahead of all expectations and I was fully operational and productive a month and half a head off when I would have anticipated. No common supply chain issues or regulatory issues we have come to expect. The product looks better on the house than I expected and Jason was involved during the installation and personally trained me on the system that day when the install was done. I have waited a month to write a review because I kept waiting for something to go wrong. To date, I could not be happier and I recommend Florida Solar Design Group as the best contractor I ever worked with for any project. One last piece of advise, make sure you with a firm that has experience working with the county and electric company where you live, I believe that familiarity made my installation virtually seamless between the three entities.
I wanted to throw a shout out to/for Florida Solar Design Group ~~ locally owned & based right here in Gateway. My husband & I decided to invest in solar... ... panels for our roof to alleviate the ever-increasing FPL bills over the long haul as well as ensure we’ll have power during any future power outages. I cannot say enough things about FSDG’s owners ~ Jason & Dominick ~ who were honest, transparent, and extremely knowledgeable throughout the process — from initial meeting to permits to install & beyond, as well as Susan who helped make sure things continued to flow administratively throughout the process. They listened to our needs, offered a couple of options to consider, then based on our decision, they designed & installed a system that would meet our current & future needs, as we’re having a pool built this fall. They did not try to sell us something we did not need, but were extremely helpful suggesting alternative, more useful options to what we *thought* we’d want/need. Dominick even provided suggestions for pool equipment specs to look for so we’d get the most out of our solar energy year-round vs. the partial-year, single purpose thermal pool water heater. Installation went flawlessly, our system has been up & seamlessly producing energy for a few weeks now. And we’re seeing the energy production daily through the intuitive app for the system. We’re REALLY looking forward to the next FPL bill which should be next to nothing. It’s comforting to know that — if the power grid goes down while the sun is shining — we’ll still have power thanks to the way FSDG designed our system. Absolutely NO regrets! Thank you FSDG!