Why two quotes here can differ so much
Coastal South Florida is designed for very high wind speeds, and rooftop solar is treated as an attachment to the roof structure that has to survive them. That drives the racking system, the number and spacing of attachment points, and which products can be used at all.
An installation engineered properly for these loads uses more attachment points and more expensive hardware than the same array would need in a low-wind region. That shows up directly in the price.
So a cheaper quote is not automatically a better deal, and may be a different specification. Ask each installer what wind speed the system is designed for and what product approvals the components carry.
Ask for the engineering documentation rather than a verbal assurance. The paperwork exists because the permitting process requires it, so an installer who cannot produce it is telling you something about how they work.
Settle the roof before the array goes on it
The array is fixed to the roof and expected to stay there for decades, which means the roof underneath needs to last comparably. Putting a twenty-five year system on a roof with a few years left is a decision you pay for twice.
Removing and reinstalling an array to replace the roof beneath it is a real cost, and it is entirely avoidable by sequencing the work the other way round.
Ask your installer to assess the roof condition and to state, in writing, what they think its remaining life is. If the answer is short, replace it first even though it delays the project.
Ask also who honours the workmanship warranty on roof penetrations and for how long. Leaks around mountings are the most common physical failure of a rooftop system anywhere, and they appear years later rather than immediately.
Your insurer has a view, and you want it in advance
Florida homeowners insurance is difficult enough without surprises at renewal. Adding a roof-mounted array in a high-wind county is exactly the sort of change worth raising with your insurer before the work rather than after.
Ask whether the system is covered under your existing policy or needs to be scheduled separately, whether the premium changes, and whether the insurer has requirements about how the array is attached.
Roof age comes up here too. Insurers in Florida pay close attention to it, and the interaction between roof age, a new array and your coverage is worth settling in one conversation rather than three.
Get the answer in writing and keep it with the project paperwork. Insurance positions change, and a record of what was agreed at installation is worth having.
What the system earns once it is running
Florida Administrative Code Rule 25-6.065 governs net metering for investor-owned utilities, with credits typically rolling over month to month and a true-up at the end of the year at a rate below retail.
That asymmetry is the whole design lesson: electricity you consume as it is generated is worth your retail rate, while a surplus settled at true-up is worth considerably less. Sizing much beyond your annual consumption gives value away once a year.
Ask what percentage of your annual usage the proposed system covers and how the true-up was treated in the projection. A model carrying surplus forward at retail indefinitely has made an assumption you should see stated.
Florida exempts the added value from property tax and the equipment from sales tax. The 30 percent federal Section 25D credit expired for property placed in service after 31 December 2025, though Section 48E survives at 30 percent for third-party owners under a lease or PPA.