Can you go off-grid with solar in Florida?

We found no Florida statute that requires a home to be connected to the power grid. In practice, local rules decide it: building officials issue the certificate of occupancy, and many Florida cities have adopted the International Property Maintenance Code, which requires occupied homes to have working electric service. Check with your city or county building department before planning to disconnect.

In a 2014 Cape Coral case, the city cited a homeowner living on solar power and rainwater under the property maintenance code; a special magistrate found she was required to connect to city water, but not to the electric grid.

A lot. The average Florida home used 1,104 kWh a month in 2024, according to EIA, or about 36 kWh a day. Covering just one day without sun would take about 3 batteries of 13.5 kWh, and Florida's summer storms and hurricanes can bring several cloudy days in a row. EnergySage data show fewer than 1% of battery shoppers plan to go fully off-grid.

Big off-grid battery banks also run into Florida's residential code limits on how much battery capacity can sit in one place. See adding a battery to existing solar.

Smaller than many off-grid plans assume. Florida's residential code battery section limits each battery unit to 20 kWh and caps the total at 80 kWh in a garage, on an exterior wall or outdoors, and 40 kWh in a utility closet or storage space.

At about 36 kWh a day for an average Florida home, 80 kWh is a little over two days of use with no sun, which is why most off-grid Florida homes also rely on a generator. See generator vs. solar battery.

No. A 2026 bill to exempt home backup power systems from some permit rules (SB 968) died in committee, so local building permits still apply to solar, batteries and generators. Plan for permits and inspections on any off-grid system, and check your local rules early. See Florida's 2026 building code and solar.

This Old House puts the average off-grid system at $45,000 to $65,000, more than double a standard grid-tied system, because of the extra panels, batteries and usually a backup generator. See what solar costs in Florida and home battery cost in Florida.

• Net metering pays full retail. FPL, Duke Energy Florida and Tampa Electric credit the solar you send to the grid at the full retail rate, rolling credits forward for up to 12 months, so the grid acts like a free battery for your savings.
• A battery covers outages. Grid-tied solar without a battery shuts off in an outage, but a battery that islands your home keeps your panels and essential loads running. When Hurricane Milton hit in 2024, Duke went from more than 1 million outages to about 105,000 within days.
• You keep a backstop. In a long cloudy stretch, the grid fills the gap instead of a generator.

The trade-off is a monthly minimum bill: $30 on FPL and Duke, and about $13.50 on Tampa Electric. See whole-home battery backup.

Often, yes. A small stand-alone solar system for a detached shed, barn or workshop is a common middle ground, but permit rules vary by county, so check with your building department first. See ground-mounted solar.