Florida HVAC marketing from Hialeah's January A/C calls to Pensacola's heat pumps

Florida requires the license number in advertising (our HVAC marketing guide covers the rule), and the board's own definition of advertising is longer than most owners expect. Rule 61G4-12.011(3) applies "advertise" to business cards, proposals, contracts, jobsite signs, "any electronic media including Internet sites", phone directories, handbills, billboards, coupon books, trade association magazines, classifieds, "manufacturer's 'authorized dealer' listings, and signs on vehicles."

The dealer listing is the one heating and air companies miss. The profile an equipment brand publishes in its find-a-dealer tool counts as your ad under that rule, and you probably did not write it. Ask your distributor rep to add the number, then search the tool yourself.

The rule leaves out hats, shirts, pens, balloons and other giveaways, and a free phone directory listing of one to three lines in plain print showing only the name, address and phone number. That exemption is for the printed phone book. A free Google Business Profile, Yelp page or Angi listing is online media under the same rule, so it carries the number.

Trucks have their own sentence. Section 489.119(5)(c) says that if a vehicle carries the company name or artwork that suggests contracting, the number must be "conspicuously and legibly displayed" with it. Nothing makes you letter a truck, but a new wrap without the number is a new violation.

Enforcement starts gently. The board issues a notice of noncompliance for a first offense and can fine or cite when the problem is not fixed within 30 days, or on a repeat. The same section lets a local government fine an unlicensed person who claims to be licensed, or who claims to be insured when the work is not covered by a general liability or workers' compensation policy. "Licensed and insured" is a statement someone can check.

The homeowner searching in Hialeah and the one searching in Naples want different things, and two Census Bureau tables from the 2024 American Community Survey show why.

Miami-Dade speaks Spanish at home. The language table (C16001) counts 67.0% of Miami-Dade residents aged five and over speaking Spanish at home, against 13.9% nationally, and 33.5% of the county speaking Spanish and rating their English below "very well". In Broward the same table puts Spanish at 29.5% and French, Haitian or Cajun at 7.7%. For an air conditioning company that means a separate Spanish campaign on "reparación de aire acondicionado" and its neighbors, a Spanish landing page that still shows the CAC or CMC number, a Spanish description on the Business Profile, and someone who can book the call in Spanish. A Spanish ad that lands on an English form loses the homeowner at the form.

Seasonal homes on the Gulf coast. The vacancy table (B25004), set against total units in B25001, counts 24.9% of Collier County's housing units and 18.1% of Lee's as vacant and held "for seasonal, recreational, or occasional use", with Walton on the Panhandle coast at 23.2%. The same count has Florida at 7.0% overall, the nation at 3.0% and Duval at 0.4%. Those are houses that sit closed with the air set back for months.

UF/IFAS Extension's guide to closing a seasonal home tells owners to have a professional check the air conditioner before they leave, to clean the condensate line, and to set the thermostat no higher than 85°F, because indoor humidity climbs past 55 to 60% above that. It also says to start about three weeks before departure. That gives a shop in Naples, Fort Myers or Walton County two offers a Jacksonville shop has little use for: a closing visit sold in the weeks before owners fly north, and a reopening visit (drain line, coil, filter, a humidity reading, a look for mildew) booked for the week before they return. Both go to people already on your customer list, which is what the texting rules below turn on.

The efficiency floor. Florida sits in the federal Southeast region, so a split condenser rated below 14.3 SEER2 under 45,000 Btu/h "cannot be installed in that region" (10 CFR 430.32). A clearance price on one is an offer you cannot fill here. The rest of the federal standard is in our HVAC marketing guide.

FPL. The program standards set FPL's rebate at $200 per qualifying unit, paid only through Participating Independent Contractors, with FPL deciding how many contractors take part. The system must fully replace the existing electric cooling system, from condenser to coil; window units and single-zone mini splits are out. The standards ask for a SEER2 rating at least one point above the federal minimum, while FPL's rebate page lists 15.2 and up, so confirm the current figure. The credit must be itemized on the invoice, and FPL's contractor list "is not a recommendation". If you are not a participating contractor, leave the rebate out of your ads; if you are, never word it as an FPL endorsement.

Duke Energy Florida. Duke runs its own free Home Energy Check, online, by phone or in person, and its June 2025 release says the customer then has 24 months to complete an eligible upgrade, HVAC replacement among them. The fitting line is a question on the quote form: have you done Duke's free Home Energy Check yet? Never word it as a Duke endorsement or offer to book the check for them. We could not open Duke's current rebate page to confirm the amounts or whether a participating contractor is required, so confirm both with Duke before an ad names a number. Check the terms of Tampa Electric, JEA, OUC or your co-op separately.

PACE. Energy-efficient heating, cooling and ventilation systems and permanent generators qualify under section 163.08. Section 163.085 bars a contractor from implying PACE is a government assistance program or that work or financing is free or needs no repayment, or making any statement about whether the assessment is tax-deductible. You may advertise PACE only while registered with the program administrator, must quote the same price financed or not, and may not offer a gift conditioned on signing.

The contract. Section 489.1425 requires a "FLORIDA HOMEOWNERS' CONSTRUCTION RECOVERY FUND" statement in residential contracts over $2,500. If the sale counts as a home solicitation sale, section 501.031 adds a "BUYER'S RIGHT TO CANCEL" notice, and section 501.025 lets the buyer cancel until midnight of the third business day, which counts Saturdays but not Sundays or federal holidays (501.021). The statute excludes a sale that results from the buyer's request for specific goods or services; whether a replacement sold on a repair call fits that exclusion is the question for counsel. Your e-sign quote flow should carry both notices where they apply.

Section 501.059 counts a text message or voicemail as a "telephonic sales call", and its definition of consumer goods includes property installed in a home and the services that go with it. A tune-up reminder is a sales message under that definition. What changes the risk is who is on the list.

• Plan members and past customers. The statute does not treat as unsolicited a message to someone with whom you have "a prior or existing business relationship", or one made mainly about a contract still being performed. A maintenance plan with visits still owed is both. Keep the plan agreement and service history tied to the number in your software.
• Missed-call replies. A message "in response to an express request of the person called" is also outside the rule. Our reading is that a text answering a call the homeowner just placed sits on that side; an automated campaign to the same number months later is a new question.
• Everyone else. An unsolicited sales text sent by an automated system for "the selection and dialing" of numbers needs the homeowner's prior express written consent, naming the number and saying consent is not a condition of purchase. A checked box or a "yes" reply counts as the signature.
• STOP. Since the 2023 amendment (chapter 2023-150) a homeowner must reply STOP before suing over sales texts, and may sue only if the texts continue 15 days after that. Stop the same minute anyway. Under section 501.059 a homeowner recovers $500 or actual damages per violation, up to three times that if willful or knowing, and the side that wins recovers attorney fees.

Section 501.616(6) covers unsolicited sales calls: none before 8 a.m. or after 8 p.m. in the called person's time zone, and no more than three on the same subject in 24 hours. We hold sales texts to the same hours as a precaution. The western Panhandle (Pensacola, Panama City) is on Central Time; Tallahassee is on Eastern, because the line in 49 CFR 71.5 follows the Apalachicola River. The same section bars unsolicited sales calls to numbers on Florida's own no-sales list, published by Florida's Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, so a heating and air dialer scrubs against it too, and federal rules sit on top; the texting and AI answering playbook covers them.