Solar Southwest Florida

It’s amazing how solar spreads in neighborhoods. The common call is, “My neighbor purchased a solar pool heater from you, and I would like to get a quotation for a system.” What could be better from the dealer perspective?!

Just looking at Google Earth around Southwest Florida will show you that neighborhood solar is incredibly common. It is not unusual to spot four or more homes in a row with solar heated pools.

Why does this happen? Simply put – people LOVE their solar heated pools!

Word of Mouth Spreads Solar in Neighborhoods

The picture above shows several different panel configurations. Customers often ask why we need to come out to take a look, and why they can’t just get the same thing as the neighbor. Every roof is different, and there are so many factors that affect the mounting and performance of the system. This also shows how versatile solar pool heating system can be!

You want to know who is the best solar company in Southwest Florida serving Fort Myers, Naples, and Port Charlotte? Well, I can tell you it’s not the company that did this installation. I won’t name names, but to be clear it’s not a Fafco system.

The company that installed this system no longer uses the steel Z-bars shown here, partly because they result in ugly installations like this, but mostly because the steel bars trapped water and debris, causing roof problems. The now use a header clamp that is screwed directly into the roof. They try to use this “feature” against the Fafco design, but it’s just sales fluff. The problems with a header clamp remain the same. Expansion and contraction result in movement and can cause serious roof issues. There is no perfect system, but this comapany’s is definitely not the best answer.

Fafco Solar’s next solar water heating project for the Southwest Florida Affordable Housing Choice Foundation is in Cape Coral at the Coconut Apartments. Each of the two multi-tenant buildings have four dwelling units with three 2′x8′ solar water heating collectors per unit. Installation of the solar panels just started, and here’s the day one picture of the first building. Like the Broadway Apartments project, the panels are mounted on rails attached to the standing seam metal roof with non-penetrating S-5 clamps.

This construction site is just a stone’s throw from the Fafco Solar office and warehouse, making this one of the most convenient solar water heating jobs we’ve worked on!

Solar Panels on South Roof

Can you spot anything wrong with this photo?

This is a picture of a house in Cape Coral that has long been used as a showpiece for Fafco Solar. It’s a solar photovoltaic (PV) job that was done before my time with the company, but I am very proud of it, nonetheless. Until now we didn’t have any great photos of this home because it is right along the Caloosahatchee River. This weekend I was on a boat and had the opportunity to get some great pictures.

This home is seen by thousands of people every day as they travel west over the Cape Coral Bridge into Cape Coral from Fort Myers. If you’ve every wondered about it, your curiosity is about to be satisfied!

Cape Coral PV System Seen from the Caloosahatchee River

This system contains 30 Evergreen 195 watt solar modules for a total system rating of 5.85kW. It converts sunlight to AC power using a SMA Sunny Boy 6000 inverter. The system is oriented toward the southeast with a roof pitch of 30 degrees. At this orientation, the system can be expected to produce over 8 megawatt-hours of electricity per year, or nearly 1/3 of a gigawatt-hour over its lifetime!

If you are coming over the Cape Coral bridge into Cape Coral, take a look to your right as you come down the bridge. If you catch this in the early morning, the sun’s reflection off the panels can be spectacular, especially in the spring and fall.