The two numbers to insist on
Systems under Rule 25-6.065 are generally sized to no more than 115 percent of annual usage, so ask what percentage of your annual usage the proposed system covers. A quote that cannot answer that has not started from your consumption.
Then ask how the annual true-up was treated in the savings projection. Excess solar is credited at the retail rate and rolled forward monthly, but any surplus surviving to the annual true-up is settled at the utility's lower avoided-cost rate. A model carrying surplus forward at retail indefinitely is describing something that does not happen.
Ask for the design to be built from your last twelve months of electricity bills rather than a generic household profile, and ask to see the calculation. That is the single most effective way to compare two quotes on the same basis.
Ask whether the production estimate was modelled for your specific roof, orientation and shading rather than a regional average, and ask for a shading assessment covering the whole year rather than the hour of the site visit.
What belongs in the contract
Get equipment specified by manufacturer and model number rather than by description. Model numbers are what make a warranty enforceable later and what let you compare two quotes on the same basis rather than on adjectives.
Establish who honours each warranty and for how long. Panels, inverter and workmanship are commonly covered by three different parties on three different terms, and a company that has left the market cannot support a workmanship warranty however well drafted.
Ask what the workmanship warranty covers on roof penetrations specifically. Leaks around mounting hardware are the most common physical failure in residential solar and they typically appear a few years in, long after the installation has been forgotten.
Get the production estimate into the contract along with what happens if actual production falls materially short. An estimate that appears only in a sales presentation is not a commitment.
The hurricane zone question, asked properly
The Florida Building Code defines the High Velocity Hurricane Zone as Miami-Dade and Broward counties, a framework created after Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Mounting components used in that zone are expected to carry a Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance or a statewide Florida Product Approval with HVHZ certification.
Ask which specific racking, clamps, flashing and fasteners are proposed and whether each carries a current approval, and ask for the approval numbers rather than a general assurance.
That question also explains a lot of price variation. Two quotes for the same roof can differ substantially because one has priced compliant hardware and engineering and the other has assumed standard components. The cheaper one is not cheaper, it is incomplete.
Ask the building department what your specific installation requires and how long review typically takes, and get that before an installation date is agreed rather than during plan review.
Your association cannot say no, and the annual true-up to plan for
Florida Statute 163.04 provides that a deed restriction, covenant, declaration or similar binding agreement may not prohibit or have the effect of prohibiting solar collectors from being installed, and that a property owner may not be denied permission by any entity granted the power to approve, forbid, control or direct alteration of property.
An association keeps one power: it may determine where on the roof collectors go, within an orientation to the south or within 45 degrees east or west of due south, and only if that does not impair their effective operation. If a proposed relocation would cost meaningful production, ask your installer to model both placements and put the difference in writing.
On the utility side, Florida investor-owned utilities credit excess solar at the retail rate and roll it forward monthly under Rule 25-6.065, with an annual true-up at the utility's lower avoided-cost rate, and systems are generally sized to no more than 115 percent of annual usage. Building deliberately large to bank credit gives value away once a year.
Confirm which utility serves your address before applying any of that, since municipal electric utilities and rural electric cooperatives set their own net metering policies and credit rates. And note that the 30 percent Residential Clean Energy Credit under Section 25D expired for property placed in service after December 31, 2025, so a purchase now receives no federal credit.