
Solar Lease vs. Buying in 2026: What the Sales Pitch Doesn’t Tell You
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
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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.













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

Your Microinverter Died. Now What? Enphase microinverters come with a 25-year warranty. That sounds reassuring until one of them actually fails and you find out what that warranty does and

The Sol-Max AIO (formerly Midnite AIO) is a great inverter, but the installation and user guide is lacking clarity and detail. I created a more detailed programming guide to help

Off-grid solar in Southwest Florida is not the same animal as a grid-tied system with a battery backup bolted on. When you pull the grid out of the picture entirely,

I got a call this morning from a loyal customer who told me his 82-year-old friend had just signed a solar lease. The salesperson didn’t leave a single piece of

Thinking About Moving Your Solar Panels to a New House? Read This First. I get this call a couple of times a year. A homeowner invested $25,000 or more in

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

I have written thousands of words about net metering on this site. Detailed breakdowns of how to read your FPL bill, deep dives into Florida’s net metering law changes, and
The team were all dialed in. Prompt service and accurate timeline. Best price around. Very highly recommended.
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
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%
Company did everything they said they would. They did it well and on time. I could not be happier
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.
Our neighbors had ADT put in their solar panels months before us and they are still not up and running. Our system is working great! Jason and Dominick... ... are badass...
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
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.
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 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!
We had the Florida Solar Design Group install solar pool heating a few months ago. The buying experience was very professional and so was the installation. We would... ... highly recommend them if you’re considering a solar solution.
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.
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 are extremely happy with our complete dealings with Florida Solar Design Group. From the initial contact to the completed job (with Lee County electrical inspection, passed first time... ... with no issues). Definitely a first rate contractor. Do not hesitate to consider this company for your solar system installation.
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!
From the start FDG was a company I knew I wanted to work with. Even with a delay on my part because of the hurricane the job went smoothly from... ... start to finish. I can't say enough good things about Jason and his crew.