DIY Home Energy Reviews

Archive for the ‘Solar Energy’ Category

Make your own solar panels at home

The sun’s energy is the most abundant source of energy available on planet Earth.

Nature uses it to control nearly every aspect of the planet. Solar power grows plants, creates weather, determines what plant and animal species will live where and on and on. It is an enormously powerful resource that Man is just now turning to in a big way.

Solar power is becoming the most popular of the alternative energy sources.

Click here for instructions on making your own solar panels.

Why is that you ask? Well let’s take a look at some of the many advantages of solar power:

• The only “fuel” required by solar energy is the light from the sun itself and that is in abundant and free supply. What’s more this “fuel” emits absolutely nothing toxic into the atmosphere unlike fossil fuel.
• Solar energy is one of the least expensive forms of energy. True there is an initial investment to install panels and collectors, but once installed, the energy is free. The cost of the installation can be recovered over a few short years as a result in the savings created by the free solar energy.
• Reliability is another feature of solar energy. The sun’s power can be stored and called upon when needed. No worries about what to do when night comes, simply tap into the stored energy. Say goodbye to power outages caused by other people overloading the grid.
• A solar energy system has very few moving parts which mean maintenance is a snap. Actually the panels and collectors have no moving parts. All this equates to minimal maintenance costs and very little downtime. Another reason to consider using solar energy to power your home.

We’ve talked about getting a solar powered system, but what can you actually use it for?

The most obvious answer is to use it to replace your electrical bill. Virtually all of your electrical needs for light, appliances, television, computer and every imaginable electrical device can be powered with a solar system.

Remember, this electricity is being fueled with free energy. Imagine the savings you’ll get over what you pay today.

Solar collectors can be used to heat your house and provide for all of your hot water needs. No more gas furnaces or hot water tanks are needed.

The collectors absorb the heat (energy) from the sun and then transfer it to water pipes which in turn feed into the house. Once again, this source of hot water is free.

This one is a bit unusual. You can cook with the sun. You can boil, roast or bake using nothing but the sun. No gas, no electric stove.

The food is as tasty as if made conventionally but it does take a bit longer to do. Eventually someone will improve that technology as well.

You can make solar power an important part of your life if you want to. True some parts of the country are better suited than others but this is a system that will save you money and do the earth a favor at the same time.

Do a little research and see if there isn’t a solar installation near you. It might be beneficial if you took a look at it so you have a better idea how it could benefit your particular situation.

Click here for instructions on making your own solar panels.

Solar Panel installation on roof

Solar energy is actually not a new technology at all.  In the 1700s a French scientist named Horace de Saussine designed and built the first free solar energy system that he called a hot box.

Basically this system consisted of an open box painted black in the interior with a glass plate covering the top.  The sun would pass through the glass, the heat was absorbed by the black surface, and the air within the box became heated as well.

In simple terms, this is the same system used by modern day solar collectors.

Click here for instructions on making your own solar panels.

The idea of free solar energy is pretty appealing because it is also a green energy with no harmful emissions and it is renewable.  Installing a solar system for your home can generate 75% of the power you need for your hot water heating requirements.

It can even be designed to heat a pool.  The downside is that it is exceptionally expensive to purchase the system.  It’s estimated that the average installation, if purchased commercially, will take 15 years to pay for it in energy savings.  Free solar energy isn’t really so free.

There is another option though.  You can save a lot of money if you decide to invest the time and effort to build and install the system yourself.  This article will give you the basics on how to do just that.

The first question to ask is does a solar hot water heating system make sense for you.  Larger families who take more baths, wash more laundry and do more dishes are likely to benefit more because the cost of their hot water represents a significant part of their gas or electric bill.

As a general rule, a solar collector system will require one half of one square foot of panel for every gallon of daily hot water used.

Solar collectors or flat panels are fairly easy to construct. Basically they are a metal box with an absorber panel and covered at the top with glass or plastic.  Insulation is placed underneath and along the sides of the absorber panel to retain heat.

Between the glass and the panel are a series of pipes that water flows through. The sun enters the box through the glass and heats the absorber which then transfers the heat to the water tubes.  In average conditions, a panel can heat the water in the pipes up to 125 degrees.

The materials to build these panels can typically be obtained at any quality home improvement store.  If you go with the most efficient design you’re going to end up using copper for the absorber and piping. This is more expensive but copper will not corrode as fast as other metals and is more efficient transferring heat.

Once your panels are constructed and mounted you can start enjoying the benefits of free solar energy.  You’ll look forward to your next energy bill to see the savings.

With free solar energy not only are you saving money but you are doing the environment a favor as well. The electricity that would have been used to heat your water undoubtedly is generated by coal or oil. By using solar you just reduced that much in fossil fuel emissions.

Click here for instructions on making your own solar panels.

Solar energy has been touted as the best source of natural energy mostly because it is clean and there is an abundance of free “fuel”.  There are obviously many benefits of solar energy over energy from fossil fuels, but there are significant disadvantages of solar energy as well.

Between that free source of energy called the sun, and the end product like heat for your house or pool, is the technology that converts it from sunshine to finished product.

Those technologies, like solar collectors, can provide some limited benefit like heating water or heating your pool, but the total amount of energy provided is minimal compared with the total amount required.

Click here for instructions on making your own solar panels.

The fact that the technologies have a limited impact on the total cost of power for a home frustrates many people who like the idea of using clean renewable energy but are disappointed with the economic results.  Why go through the expense and time to install the solar system if it makes little to no difference in the electrical bill.

Among the disadvantages of solar energy, the biggest has to be the cost of acquiring and installing the solar technology.  Often times it’s claimed that once the system is working, solar energy is free and you’ll never have to pay for power again. That’s simply not true.

A solar hot water system may cost as much as $10,000 to install.  That’s an upfront cost before you get the first drop of solar energy.

After it’s installed, the amount of power that you actually save will probably be far less than your total electric use and as a result, there will be no significant reduction in your electrical bill.

Even with the rising cost of electricity, most people are in a better position to deal with a monthly electrical bill than they are to lay out a large sum up front and then see no real reduction in their bill.  This lack of economic benefit may be the biggest hurdle to wide acceptance of solar power

Another of the disadvantages of solar power is simply that the sun doesn’t shine 24 hours a day.  The claim that there is an infinite amount of solar power may hold true when the sun is up and the skies are clear, but when the sun sets so does the solar technologies ability to generate power.

Obviously our need for electrical power doesn’t end when nighttime begins.  If there was a total reliance on solar power, at nightime there’d be no lights, television, heating or cooling systems, refrigeration or any of the countless items that require electricity.

The limitations of solar energy need to be examined before you jump on the bandwagon, install a system and become dependant on it.

The dream that solar power provides unlimited free energy and you’ll never pay another power bill is just that, a dream.  Unfortunately there are real disadvantages to solar power as a source of energy for private homes.

Enormous costs for getting the technology, the inefficiency of the technology, and the simple fact that the source of the energy, the sun, sets at night, all have to be taken into consideration before a decision to invest in solar energy can be made.

Click here for instructions on making your own solar panels.

Click here to check out Earth 4 Energy DVD Solar Panel DIY instructions

For a long time man has been using up the earth’s resources of fossil fuels and creating stress and damage to the environment. In order to stop or even reduce this stress and damage we need to look at alternatives for energy.

One of these alternatives is solar energy. We can convert the energy of the sun to create electricity for everyone. Some of the advantages of solar energy are that it’s free, it’s everywhere and it doesn’t deplete the environment.

Click here for instructions on making your own solar panels.

• Solar Energy Advantage number one – the sun is everywhere making solar energy available anywhere. It’s been said that every day the sun pumps out enough energy for the everyone in the world to have electricity for a whole month. Even though the sun is millions of miles from the earth, there will always be energy for use to use. We already use the energy of the sun for many other things such as growing plants to sustain us for our food needs and heat to keep us warm. There are so many advantages with solar energy, but we need to understand it so that it becomes more main stream. Only a very tiny percentage of people use it now.

• Solar Energy Advantage number two – Solar energy is great for the environment. It doesn’t create pollution, global warming, acid rain because it doesn’t use fossil fuel. A great movie to watch is Al Gore’s ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ to help with understanding how we are damaging the environment and how solar energy can help. It will give you a new outlook on how we are wasting fuels down to making sure you turn off light switches and machines when not in use. It is great incentive on making the choice to go with solar energy.

• Solar Energy Advantage number three – Low cost. Setting up your system does have costs but once your solar system is installed, the energy from the sun is free. You’ll see a big decrease in your electricity bill or even see your meter run backwards. In some areas there are government programs to help you set up your system from tax credits to grants. As well as household clean energy, the government is incentivizing solar power plants increasing the trend towards solar as a viable community power provider.

• Solar Energy Advantage number four – Health for you, your family and the community at large. The more we use fossil fuels, the more pollution enters our bodies through the water, plants and animals we eat. The increase in disease rates, cancer and allergies can all be linked to the burning of fossil fuels and the sulphur dioxide that is released into the air.

Click here for instructions on making your own solar panels.