
Why Soft Starters Are No Longer Standard for Battery Backup
The Question That Never Goes Away “Do I need a soft starter for my AC?” The fact that customers keep asking tells me two things. First, they are doing their
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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.













The Question That Never Goes Away “Do I need a soft starter for my AC?” The fact that customers keep asking tells me two things. First, they are doing their

Why Off-Grid Homes With Serious Power Needs Should Take a Hard Look at the EG4 GridBoss The EG4 GridBoss gets filtered out early by most off-grid homeowners. It says “grid-interactive”

A YouTube video from a Florida maker called Hyperspace Pirate went viral last month. The concept: use solar panels to freeze a bucket of water during the day, then melt

We put together this handy guide for Sol-Ark inverter users to document and elaborate on what each setting means. Sometimes inverter manuals are vague on the meaning of certain settings,

Floating Solar Panels Are Coming to Southwest Florida Bonita Springs Utilities just approved a 1.5-megawatt floating solar array on a pond at its East Water Reclamation Facility. That is a

I’m Done Being Polite About Solar Leases If you’ve read this blog before, you know I call a spade a spade. I don’t sugarcoat things for the sake of industry

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

Time to nerd out a bit. How about a story about voltage rise and why it isn’t as big a problem in the off-grid world? Grab a cup of coffee.

A Client Asked Us About Solar Fences. Here Is Why We Said No. A client recently asked if we install solar fences. It is one of those ideas that sounds

The solar industry loves to frame AC coupling and DC coupling as a battle, with one winner and one loser. That framing misses the point entirely. Both architectures exist because
Florida Solar Design Group was fabulous - they really know the business and provided great customer relations. Very professional, responsive and guided me throughout the process. The only... ... hitch was interacting FPL, but that was due to FPL's user unfriendly website. Very happy with the system, which seems to be functioning well. Cannot recommend highly enough.
Florida Solar Design helped us out tremendously. Jason is incredibly knowledgeable regarding solar systems. We needed to have a solar panel system removed and reinstalled as part... ... of a roof replacement. He provided a very thorough inspection report, and spent time educating us on things to be aware of, without a sales pitch for a new system. Very impressive and friendly service.
We were so lucky to find Florida Solar Design Group. They are professional, courteous and clean up all the mess ( not that they made a mess). After the initial... ... installation, it wasn’t “take the money and run”. I, of course, had more questions and the owner came to my home to go over all of it again. That’s a plus in my book. I highly recommend this company 100%
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.
Jason and his team are excellent I highly recommend this company they are the best in the buissness
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
I spent considerable time researching and designing my ideal solar + battery system and then reached out to 7 local solar installers. It turned out that 5 of them did... ... not have the expertise required to do what I wanted. The remaining 2 both seemed professional enough and gave me similar quotes, but it was Jason who really proved that Florida Solar Design Group was the right choice for me. There was no pressure and it was clear that he was extremely familiar with the specific hardware I wanted to use. He was also very patient and willing to educate me about how to operate everything. It has been about a week since everything has been completed and I couldn't be happier. I can power my entire 2500sqft house from battery for many hours during the night and then recharge using solar during the day.
Jason and his team have been a pleasure to deal with throughout the process. As with any system of this complexity, there were a few glitches (mainly enphase related) however... ... Jason worked through start up process directly with factory and resolved all issues. Their team has responded promptly and professionally throughout. One of those vendors that you find now and then that you wish all others we like. We are 110% pleased with the system and end results. Be prepared to wait on FPL for permit approvals, etc. but in the end, it will get done!
I found Florida Solar Design by searching for the manufactures Enphase, Rec, and Span. I already had a Generac Generator that I wanted integrated into the final system. ... ... This is the best service I have ever had from any vendor. If it wasn't for my insurance certificate issue this project would have been done in 2 weeks. I am fully functional with net metering in under one month from the time their first trucks showed up. Fast, friendly, clean, and respectful. Thanks for the great service
I highly recommend Fl. Solar design group.
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 was calling around to find a contractor in the area that could help one of our clients troubleshoot an issue with their system. I work with a contractor out... ... of state and we are no longer in FL. Not many people were willing to take this on for us. I spoke with Jason and he was very professional and helpful. Even in their busy schedule, he was able to help our customer out in a timely manner and was very transparent with us about the whole process and what needed to be done. Would definitely recommend them!
A very professional and knowledgeable service throughout. I have worked with a lot of contractors and this company is first rate. I thoroughly recommend anyone considering Solar to them. Prices... ... were competitive and they respond immediately to any communications.
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.
We recently moved into our forever home In Babcock Ranch and hired Florida Solar to design and install a solar system four our new home. Florida Solar took care... ... of the permitting including dealing with our fussy HOA's and scheduled the installation. Their communication was excellent. The installation took less than a day and by the time the crew left we were producing electricity. Now that we are hooked up to the grid we have been producing a little more power than we are using and that is running to AC's. I am very pleased with our solar panels through Florida Solar Design Group and would definitely recommend them to anyone considering going solar.
I did a deep dive in researching solar companies that do business in Southwest Florida. Florida Solar Design Group rose from the very convoluted pack as the best. Only after... ... the installation was complete did I realize that they have to be THE very best. I'm very happy with my decision to choose Florida Solar Design Group.