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Sarasota and Manatee counties’ most knowledgeable solar contractor
Our primary business is helping homeowners, commercial businesses and institutions make the switch to environmentally friendly, clean and free solar energy.
We have provided high quality solar pool heating sales, installation and service throughout Sarasota and Manatee counties for over 20 years. Roark Solar is a division of Environmental Equipment, a Florida state-certified contractor.
The unique benefits of choosing Roark Solar as your pool heating contractor include:
- Proven products. Our Solar Industries (SI) solar pool heating systems have delivered trouble-free operation for three decades. You can count on proven and reliable pool heating performance for years to come.
- Extended warranty. We offer an unconditional Roark Solar five year warranty on all solar parts, workmanship, and labor for every component of your system not covered by a manufacturer’s warranty. This includes things like electronic controls, actuators and motorized valves, plumbing and pool blankets.
- Knowledgeable experts. Jim Roark, Roark Solar’s owner, has three decades of solar industry experience and a university degree in physics. He and his team of solar professionals will ensure that your system is sized and installed correctly.
In a relationship that dates back to 1978, Roark Solar enjoys a position as the world’s oldest continuous dealer for Solar Industries solar pool heaters. Since 1976, Solar Industries has led the solar pool heating industry with countless product design and manufacturing innovations. And Roark Solar has been installing the industry’s most field-tested solar pool heating systems in Sarasota and Manatee counties for 30 years. During this time, our business has expanded. Today, we also sell, service and install heat pump and gas pool heaters, as well as swimming pool automation and automatic pool sanitation solutions.
You can certainly choose among any number of companies to heat your swimming pool, or to provide you with innovative pool automation and sanitation solutions, but Roark Solar has the experience to handle solar pool heating projects of any scope or complexity. Perhaps the best evidence of our track record satisfying customers are the longstanding vendor relationships we have with most of Sarasota and Manatee counties’ major swimming pool contractors.
Just three examples of our fanatical attention to quality:
- Stainless steel. We use only marine-grade stainless steel mounting hardware when installing our solar pool heating systems. Stainless steel is more expensive, but it lasts.
- Experience required. Roark Solar installation crew leaders must have at least one full year of supervised field installation and service experience before taking charge of a crew. Incidentally, this might help to explain why Roark Solar installation crews are featured in Solar Industries installation training films.
- Turn-key customer care. Most important: We service what we sell. When you enter into a customer relationship with Roark Solar, you will not need to worry about dealing with manufacturers’ toll-free numbers and distant phone operators for warranty problems. We’ll take care of it.
Today’s swimming pools have become very complex systems employing a variety of modern technologies. Roark Solar’s people have decades of hands-on experience, so we know which technologies and systems are practical and, more important, affordable and trouble-free. We carefully study a product’s durability and reliability before it gets anywhere near your swimming pool. From small residential pools to the largest commercial swimming pool, no job is too large or small.
Please take a moment and meet our key people:
Jim Roark, President and Owner. Jim founded Roark Solar in 1978. His swimming pool heating experience spans 30 years, but he isn’t your ordinary solar contractor. For starters, he holds a university degree in physics and actually taught physics before entering the solar industry.
Jim’s experience as a physics instructor made him a perfect fit to train solar technicians and sales representatives. He joined Solar Industries as one of the manufacturer’s first few employees in 1976. While trained as a physicist, Jim advanced through the marketing side of the company, becoming national sales manager within a short time. During his tenure in this position, the young manufacturing company’s sales increased ten-fold, from just $500,000 in 1976 to more than $5 million two years later.
This sort of success demanded extensive travel, and Jim decided to leave Solar Industries in 1978 to spend more time with his family. But he didn’t stray far; becoming the Solar Industries dealer for Sarasota and Manatee counties. Today, 30 years later, Jim and Solar Industries are still going strong. And Jim still personally reviews the sizing and design specifications of every system Roark Solar sells.
Ken Jones, Vice President. Ken supervises and services Roark’s heat pump, gas heater and automation sales. He is a nationally licensed Certified Commercial Pool Operator and has 27 years of experience working in all phases of commercial pool heating, service and automation. Ken is also an authorized service representative for many major swimming pool equipment manufacturers, including Aquatherm, Hayward and Goldline pool automation systems, to name just three. Ken often personally installs and services Roark’s gas heater sales.
Ken has a degree in electronics and builds and sells his own pool heating geothermal heat pumps. His extensive background in commercial pools, pool heat pumps, salt chlorine generators and swimming pool automation systems allows Roark Solar to handle any swimming pool technology application.
Eric Peters. Eric has eight years of experience in all phases of solar energy systems installation and service. He has completed the Florida Solar Energy Center’s Technical and Service Training for solar pool heating and solar hot water systems, together with with FSEC technical training for photovoltaic (solar electricity generation) systems. He is also an Aquatherm and Goldline warranty and service technician.
And just what, exactly, does all this experience mean for you?
It means peace of mind because you’re dealing with a company driven more by after-the-sale technical and engineering concerns than by a simple desire to make the next sale. Specifically, you can expect:
- Straight answers
- Correct system sizing for your unique needs and site factors
- Realistic expectations of system performance
- Correct plumbing installation and system hydraulics
- The most advanced, safe and trouble-free systems available today
While you can certainly choose among any number of companies to heat your swimming pool, or provide you with leading edge solar energy systems for hot water heating and solar electric power, the people at Roark Solar have the unique experience to handle projects of any scope and complexity.
So give us a call at 941-924-3016, or click the big orange button and complete our short estimate request form, and experience the Roark Solar Difference. You’ll be glad you did.