Florida Solar Life

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About Florida Solar Life

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Rick, the homeowner behind the numbers

Hi, I’m Rick, a homeowner in St. Augustine, Florida. I put solar and batteries on my home and wanted honest answers to the questions I had before I signed: how much will it really make, what will it really cost, and what happens to my FPL bill?

Most of what I found was either a sales pitch or national averages. So this site shares the numbers from one real home — mine.

My system

Panels58 Tesla 425 W panels
System size24.65 kW DC
Roof58 panels on east (23), west (23) and north (12) faces, 27° pitch
BatteriesTwo Tesla Powerwall+ units (27 kWh total)
BackupWhole-home backup through a Tesla Backup Gateway 2
EV chargingSeparate FPL meter on FPL EVolution
InstalledNovember 2023
OwnershipOwned outright
LocationA home in St. Augustine, FL
Roof layout: 58 panels on six main arraysTop-down drawing of a hip roof with a front gable porch and a garage wing. 19 panels face east (arrays MP1, MP4, MP5), 23 face west (MP3, MP6), 12 face north (MP2) and four face south (MP7). All faces are pitched 27 degrees.MP2MP1MP3MP4MP5MP6MP7GarageFront porchFront of the house faces southN
My roof layout, traced from the installer’s plan: 19 panels face east, 23 west, 12 north and four face south (MP7).

East-facing (85°): 19 panelsWest-facing (265°): 23North-facing (355°): 12South-facing (MP7): 4

ArrayFacesAzimuthPanelsInverter
MP1East85°14E
MP2North355°12D
MP3West265°21F
MP4East (garage)85°3D
MP5East (porch gable)85°2E
MP6West (porch gable)265°2E
MP7South (front slope)≈180° (not in plan’s table)4D
Whole-home backup setupSolar panels feed two Powerwall+ units, which connect through a Backup Gateway 2 to the home and to the FPL main meter and grid. The EV charger is on its own separate FPL meter.Solar58 panels · 24.65 kW2 × Powerwall+27 kWh storageBackup Gateway 2switches to backupHomewhole-home backupFPL main meternet meteringFPL gridbuys & credits kWhSeparate FPL service for the carEV meterFPL EVolutionEV chargerModel XSolid = power flow · dashed = two-way
How solar, batteries, the home, and FPL connect.

How I write

I write in plain language, show my sources, and mark estimates as estimates. I’m not an installer, an engineer, or a financial advisor — just someone sharing what happened at one house. Your roof, utility, and finances will be different.

Questions or corrections? Email hello@floridasolarlife.com.