Solar Southwest Florida

I’m at the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Broadway Apartments affordable housing project where we have 40 solar water heating systems installed. This is the largest polymer solar collector water heating project in Florida!

Solar water heating will reduce the electric bills for residents of the two-building multi-tenant property.

The goal of the project is to provide affordable housing that features low utility bills in a LEED Platinum facility. The solar water heating systems were one part of the LEED criteria that allowed the Broadway Apartments to achieve Platinum status.

The Southwest Florida Affordable Housing Choice Foundation reports that previous residents are already asking for applications to rent units. The property is deed restricted so rents will remain low for the long-term. The community is actively seeking residents for annual leases available now.

Congratulations to The Foundation, Chris-Tel Construction, and all of the project partners!

UPDATE: Here is the Fort Myers News-Press story on the event: http://www.news-press.com/article/20120120/GREEN/301200046/Low-income-housing-in-Fort-Myers-adds-green-efficiency

This is my 100th blog post since I started Solar Southwest Florida in August 2011. It’s my first blog, although I have been a frequent contributor to online forums for years. I like to write and share insights, but hope my technical style doesn’t bore you to tears. I feel the content has been useful and informative, and would love your feedback!

This also marks approximately two years employed by Fafco Solar (my first day was December 29, 2009).

Solar is more than a career and an interest for me. For a decade of my life prior to my time at Fafco Solar, it was a necessity. My business, my life, and my sanity depended on solar electricity. I lived much of that part of my life off-grid in the Caribbean, and solar energy gave me many luxuries that seemed to put me light years ahead of the neighbors’ standards of living. For me, price was no object. Solar was a practical solution to a serious problem – maintaining my standard of living.

When I returned to living full time in Florida, my interest in solar energy eventually brought me to the best solar company in Southwest Florida, Fafco Solar of Cape Coral. It’s hard to pin down exactly what I do here, because I have the luxury of shaping my own position. Operations Manager doesn’t really describe what I do. A more appropriate title based on what I  do on a day-to-day basis, make decisions and recommend courses of action to the owner, would be VP of Operations or COO, but some days I look more like a CFO, Project Manager, IT guy, or Engineer. I’ve even shoveled some dirt in my time here. Welcome to the world of small business! Every day brings a new task and a new challenge, and I get to be involved with solar energy, a product for which I have a great affinity.

As my role at the company continues to evolve, so will the purpose of the Solar Southwest Florida blog. Expect to see more pictures, more projects, and more tips and tricks to maximize your solar energy investment. I hope to get out in the field more and document the “little things” we do that ensure success. Finally, I’ll keep you up to date on legislative matters, financial incentives available to Southwest Florida homeowners, and news that is related to solar energy.

Did you know that it’s easy to get SouthwestFloridaSolar delivered to your email inbox whenever a new news article is published? Just use the following link:

http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=Solar-Southwest-Florida&loc=en_US

Note: SouthwestFloridaSolar will not know your email address and will not send you any email. This is a service provided by Feedburner, which is owned by Google.

You can also subscribe via RSS or connect with SolarSouthwestFlorida using the buttons in the Follow My Blog section on the right.