From the desk
Category: <span>Technology</span>
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Home EV Charging With Solar in Florida
Short version A home charger does not plug into the panels. It plugs into the house. The panels lower the electric bill for the kilowatt-hours the car uses, and only if the system is big enough and your utility credits those hours the way the sales sheet says. On Duke Energy Florida and Florida Power […]
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Clouds, Rain, and Solar Production in Florida
Short version Clouds cut solar production. Rain barely does, beyond the cloud that brought it. A thick Central Florida thunderstorm can drop the array to roughly a tenth to a third of its clear-sky rate while the cloud is overhead. A bright hazy day might only nick it. The annual estimate you were sold already […]
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Replacing a Solar Inverter in Florida
Short version Replacing a solar inverter in Central Florida is usually one of three jobs, and they are not the same price. A wall-mounted string inverter, swapped for a similar unit without touching the roof, is the small one. Published 2026 ranges for that job, parts and labor together, commonly fall around $1,500 to $3,500. […]
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Solar Inverters in Central Florida
Short version Panels make direct current. The house and the grid use alternating current. The inverter is the box that turns one into the other. A string inverter is one box for the whole array, often warrantied about 10 to 12 years, and it is the part you should budget to replace once. Microinverters sit […]
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Solar Water Heating in Central Florida
Short version A solar water heater makes hot water for showers, sinks, laundry, and the dishwasher. It is not a pool heater, and it is not the electric panels that power the house. Florida’s usual version is one or two glass-covered collectors on the roof, a pump, and a tank of about 80 gallons with […]
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Solar Pool Heating in Central Florida
Short version A solar pool heater is not a set of electric solar panels. It is black plastic collectors on the roof. Your pool pump pushes water through them, the sun warms that water, and it returns to the pool. In Central Florida the collector area is often about 80 percent of the pool’s surface, […]
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Home Battery Types in Florida
Short version In 2026 the home battery on a new Central Florida quote should be lithium iron phosphate (LFP). That is what is inside a Tesla Powerwall 3 and an Enphase IQ Battery 5P. Older packs, including the Powerwall 2, were often nickel manganese cobalt (NMC). They still work. They fade faster in heat and […]
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Generator vs Battery Backup in Central Florida
Short version A battery keeps the fridge and lights on without fuel or noise. A standby generator keeps the central air on for days if you have gas. In Central Florida that is the real split, not “which is greener.” One 10 to 14 kilowatt-hour (kWh) battery is a day or two of essentials, a […]
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Solar Batteries in Central Florida
Short version A home battery in Central Florida in 2026 is mostly a hurricane product, not a way to beat Duke Energy Florida or Florida Power & Light (FPL) on the monthly bill. Those two still credit extra daytime solar at the full energy rate inside the year, so storing that kilowatt-hour (kWh) overnight does […]
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Solar panels and Florida heat: what the cell actually does at 65 C
Short version Nameplate watts are measured at 77 F cell temperature. A Central Florida roof in July is not that lab. Cells commonly run 130-160 F in full sun, sometimes hotter on a dark shingle roof with a tight air gap. Every crystalline silicon module loses power as it heats. How much depends on the […]