Hurricane season in St. Petersburg: a solar and battery readiness checklist

Pinellas County is a peninsula with evacuation zones that start at the water and work inland fast. If you own solar or a battery here, storm prep has a few extra line items.

Before the season starts

• Confirm your monitoring app is installed, logged in and actually reporting. An app you cannot log into during an outage is not monitoring.
• Photograph the roof, the array and the equipment on a clear day. Dated pre-storm photos are the single most useful thing in a later claim.
• Have your permit, interconnection and equipment documents in one folder, digital and offline.
• Walk the attachments: any loose conduit strap, lifted flashing or exposed sealant should be handled in June, not in a watch.

When a storm is 72 hours out

• Charge the battery to full and change any reserve setting that keeps it partially discharged for rate arbitrage.
• Clear the roof approach: palm fronds, loose gutter sections and anything on a nearby structure that can become a projectile.
• Know which circuits are on your backup panel. Write it down and put it on the panel door.
• Fuel and food planning still applies. A battery is not a generator with unlimited runtime.

During the outage

Let the system do its job. Do not open the disconnects. Stage the loads: run the refrigerator and internet continuously, and treat air conditioning as a scheduled load unless you sized for it. Watch state of charge in the morning — if it did not recover overhead the previous afternoon, cut consumption before evening.

After the storm

• Do not climb the roof. Photograph from the ground and from a window or a neighbor's second story.
• Look for shifted modules, bent rails, torn conduit, water intrusion at the ceiling and any burnt smell at the equipment.
• If anything looks damaged, leave the system off and call a licensed contractor. A cracked module can still be energized.
• Report to your insurer with the pre-storm photos attached.

Flood exposure is its own problem

Storm surge, not wind, is the defining risk in a lot of St. Pete. Equipment that was submerged is replaced, not restarted, regardless of how it looks. That applies to batteries, inverters and any panel that took saltwater.

Read more

• Home battery backup in Florida
• Solar battery vs. generator
• Hurricanes and solar panels in Florida
• Roof replacement with solar panels
• Florida net metering

Talk it through with a local crew

Origin is a Tampa Bay solar, roofing, battery and electrical contractor (Florida license EC13012465) working St. Petersburg and the rest of Pinellas County. Start with the quick questionnaire, compare programs on the financing page, or book a consultation — in person, virtual, or a call back.

Nothing here is a guarantee of savings, runtime or approval. Your roof, usage, shade and utility rate decide the outcome.