Guide
Florida solar and hurricane season: roof, permits and insurance
Updated
A solar array is a twenty-five year attachment to a roof in a state that gets hit. These questions cost nothing to ask, and much more to fix afterwards.
Email me this result
We will send you these figures and a link back to them. One email, nothing else unless you tick the box.
How this calculator works
- The federal residential clean energy credit (Internal Revenue Code Section 25D) is not applied. Per the IRS page, it "equals 30% of the costs of new, qualified clean energy property" installed "anytime from 2022 through December 31, 2025".
- It also states "the credit is not available for any property placed in service after December 31, 2025" (irs.gov). The page was last reviewed July 4, 2026; we read it again on our updated date. Confirm your position with a tax professional before letting any 2026 quote net 30% off.
- The default electricity rate of 15.17 cents per kWh is the Florida residential average for May 2026. It was 14.97 cents in May 2025 (EIA, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A). It is an input: use the figure from your own bill.
- Sizing assumes roughly 1,400 kWh per kW per year for an unshaded south-facing Florida roof. It is scaled by 0.85 for an east or west roof and 0.7 for a shaded or north-facing one.
- These are working estimates, not figures from an official source we can cite today. Treat the suggested size as a starting point, and ask your installer for modeled production for your address.
- Price per watt is your input. The $2.80 default is a typical 2026 Florida quote. It moves with roof type and pitch, tile versus shingle, panel and inverter tier, needed roof work, and the permitting jurisdiction. We publish no Florida market average: no official source we can cite publishes one.
- The sales tax line applies Florida's 6% general state sales tax rate (Florida Department of Revenue) to the system price. Florida exempts "solar energy systems or any component thereof" from sales tax (s. 212.08(7)(hh), F.S.).
- Many counties add a discretionary sales surtax, which is exempt too. So the figure shown is a floor, not the whole saving.
- For residential property, "the just value of the property attributable to a renewable energy source device may not be considered" in determining assessed value.
- Photovoltaic modules and inverters are named as renewable energy source devices (s. 193.624, F.S.). Adding solar should not raise your Florida property tax assessment.
- Nothing here estimates savings. Florida does run net metering for customer-owned renewable generation. But a banked credit's year-end value is not the retail rate: see how Florida net metering works.
Start with the roof, not the panels
Panels outlast most Florida roof coverings. If the roof underneath is halfway through its life, choose: replace it now, or pay to remove and reinstall the array later.
Ask every installer two questions. In your opinion, what is this roof's remaining life? What is your written price for removal and reinstallation if it is replaced in year eight?
- Get the roof's age and condition in writing before signing for solar, from a roofer rather than from the solar salesperson.
- Tile roofs cost more to mount on than shingle and need a specific flashing detail. Ask which detail is being used and who warrants it.
- Ask who is liable for a roof leak at a mounting point, for how long, and whether that survives the installer going out of business.
- Ask whether the array layout leaves the access paths your local code and fire officials require.
Wind load, permits and inspection
Solar in Florida is permitted construction work, engineered for the wind loads the Florida Building Code requires for your location and exposure. Ask for the paperwork: a signed structural attachment detail, the permit application, and the inspection sign-offs.
Do not accept "it is all handled" as an answer. Do not pay a final installment before inspections and utility interconnection approval are complete.
- Ask for the permit number and the authority having jurisdiction, then check it yourself with the building department.
- Ask for the engineered attachment detail showing the design wind speed and exposure category used.
- Ask for the interconnection approval from your utility. Switching on before approval can put you in breach of the agreement you signed.
- Keep every document together. It is what a buyer's inspector, and an adjuster after a storm, will ask for.
Your homeowners insurance
Tell your insurer before the system goes on, not after. Ask whether the array is covered under the dwelling, whether your coverage amount must rise, and what deductible applies.
Florida property policies commonly carry a separate hurricane deductible. Insurers must offer hurricane deductibles "equal to $500, 2 percent, 5 percent, and 10 percent of the policy dwelling limits".
A policy with one must state on its face, in bold type, that it "contains a separate deductible for hurricane losses, which may result in high out-of-pocket expenses to you". Source: s. 627.701, F.S..
Read your own declarations page for the actual figure. A 5% hurricane deductible on a $400,000 dwelling limit is $20,000 of loss you carry before the policy pays anything, which changes how you think about a storm-damaged array.
We are not insurance advisers and this is not insurance advice. These are questions to put to your own agent or insurer, with your policy and declarations page in front of you.
Batteries and outages
A grid-tied array without storage shuts down in an outage, by design, so it cannot energize lines that utility crews are working on.
If riding out a multi-day outage is why you are buying solar, you are buying a battery with panels attached, not the other way round. Price the two separately in the calculator. Ask exactly which circuits the battery backs up, and for how long.