Installing a solar power system in your home to generate your own free electricity sounds great-until you see the price tag. Prices for a professional installation start at $27,000 and rise quickly from there. This financial barrier has inspired many resourceful people to figure out how to build and install their own solar panels. Unfortunately, it has also led to a cottage industry of scams and swindles. The internet is now flooded with companies selling do-it-yourself green energy how-to manuals, usually accompanied by grandiose claims of how cheap and easy it is to build.

The latest contestant in this arena is Green DIY Energy, so we intend to do a complete review.

The Claims:

Like any company trying to sell its product, Green DIY Energy makes several impressive claims that, at first glance, may seem too good to be true. What struck us most, however, was how relatively few grandiose claims this product made compared to its many competitors. It seems to be comparatively straightforward-or at least modest-in what its product can do.

Green DIY Energy Review: Construction Time

One of the claims many green energy scams make is that you can build a solar panel or wind turbine remarkably fast, sometimes in a single weekend. While not impossible, it is very unlikely-an experienced electrical engineer in a workshop stocked with all tools and materials needed, working straight through the weekend without and break or distractions, might be able to complete the project in that amount of time. But for the average homeowner in a garage workshop, it will likely take much longer.

We were pleasantly surprised, then, when Green DIY Energy did NOT make any promises of super-fast construction. The only mention of how long it took to construct was a testimonial of a teenager who built a solar panel as a “summer project” by working “every Monday for a few hours.”

The Tools:

Another sneaky move by green DIY energy scam websites is only include the cost of materials when quoting how cheaply a solar panel can be built. Their customers may find out later that they have buy specific tools for the job, driving the price up.

Green DIY Energy is the first such website we’ve seen that acknowledges this distinction. In fact, they caution their customers that “before you try to build your own solar power, you need to have the right tools.” Sure, the customer may have to buy some tools for the project, but at least they were warned of that possibility before buying the product.

Solar Panel vs. Solar Power System

Another trick the green DIY energy scam sites use is exploiting people’s ignorance of the difference between a solar panel and a solar power system. A solar panel is only one part of a solar power system-but it is the most visible. While the solar panel sits on the roof for all to see, the rest of the solar power system is usually inside the building, hidden from sight. Consequently, it’s easy for someone to not realize there’s more to the system than the solar panels.

Such bogus sites promise being able to build a solar panel at a low cost. It’s not until the customer has bought and read the manual that they realize they also have to buy and assemble the battery banks, the charge controller, DC inverter, etc. The cost of these, of course, was not included in the advertised price, which was just for the solar panel.

Given this, it was a pleasant surprise to find that Green DIY Energy not only acknowledged this difference, but pointed it out to their potential customers. Their DIY manual, they claim, will show you how to build solar panels for $98 apiece. Then it will also show you how to build the rest of the solar power system for $200. This brings the total cost of the project to around $300-which is higher than some of their competitor’s claims. Still, $300 for a solar power system is a much more realistic estimate-and it’s still an incredibly low price for a solar power system!

The Savings

Many of these other sites prominently feature promises of how much you can save off your power bill. Other green DIY energy scam sites promise savings of 35%, 50%, and 80%. The truth is that no one can estimate how much a single solar panel can save you, because almost every household uses different amounts of electricity every month. There’s a difference in electricity consumption between a bachelor who is rarely home, and a household with three kids and a stay-at-home mother. Some of these sites even claim you can eliminate your power bill completely-which, using a single solar panel, is utter nonsense. Whenever we see DIY green energy sites that quote a specific savings to your power bill, we’re automatically suspicious.

We kept expecting Green DIY Energy to quote us a power bill savings… but it never happened. Instead, they took the much more practical approach of quoting how much electricity your homebuilt solar panel will generate (60 to 120 watts, depending on the size and type of solar cells used), and letting each customer do the math on how much they will save.

Green DIY Energy’s website also openly states that a single solar panel will NOT power your entire home. Rather, they encourage you to build several solar panels (when they cost $98 apiece to built, why not?), and that the addition of each new solar panel will reduce your power bill further. This is a much more realistic approach to how much their customers will save.

Conclusion

As far as we can tell, Green DIY Energy looks legitimate. They avoid the grandiose claims, lies of omission, fuzzy logic and bad math that we’ve come to expect from green DIY energy scam sites. The advertising traps and pitfalls designed to bluff customers are simply not there on the Green DIY Energy website.

Their promises, although more modest than their competitors, are also far more realistic. Can you really build a solar power system for $300, as Green DIY Energy claims? Although it’s impossible to know for sure until we try it, we can say this: Green DIY Energy appears to be a legitimate, honest, and trustworthy company, selling a solid product. If you decide to try building your own solar panels from a manual purchased online, keep this product on your short list. From what we can tell, they seem more likely to be able to deliver on their promises.

If you’re looking for a more efficient and environmental friendly way to power up your home, then you should probably start considering using green energy instead. The good news is, with the recent developments of solar energy, you need not solely depend on fossil fuel or nuclear power plants for your electricity needs. All you need are a couple of solar cells and you’ll be all set to use green energy.

But the question on everyone’s mind still remains. How much money is this going to cost? If you’re thinking of relying on solar panels entirely for your energy needs, then you might want to set aside a substantial budget as most professional installation packages could easily cost up to $30,000. But solar energy need not cost you a fortune as there is a friendlier option in the form of DIY solar panel packages which you can get for around $1000. As long as you’re ready to put in some work and take the hands on approach in the operation, then you can start enjoying solar energy in no time.

Using solar energy has a lot of advantages. Aside from it being a reliable source of renewable energy, it also provides you with the opportunity to reduce your carbon footprint in the environment. By using solar energy, you won’t have to solely rely on electricity that electric companies deliver to you. This change will not only help you financially, but greatly help the environment as well. What are you waiting for? Start looking up other sources of renewable energy that you can incorporate in your lifestyle today.

We all want to go green, but we don’t really know how much energy our homes use and how many solar panels we will need to make a solar energy system worth the investment. In this article I will explain how you calculate the saving made by solar energy and how to calculate if the investment is worth it.

How Much Energy Does It Produce In A Year

Our example is a south facing home in the Midwest. The Midwest receives around 4.86 hours of direct sunlight on average a year. In the summer there is more, but this is an average. As a result of this our home generates around 3,500 kilowatt hours of power a year from a 2.0kW system.

This is calculated by taking the size of your system and multiplying by the number of hours direct sunlight you receive and multiplying that amount by 365 to get a yearly figure.

How Much Money Do You Save?

Your next step is to take a look at your electricity bill and find the cost of your electricity. In this example, the cost is $.12/kilowatt hour.

We calculate the saving we make by multiplying the number of kilowatt hours in a year by the price resulting in $420 a year savings.

How Long Before My Investment is Recovered?

If you are buying your installation, the time it takes to recover your investment will be far longer. A 2.0kW system may cost you around $7,000 after rebates and incentives which will take you 17 to recover your investment, but if you decided to build your own system which could cost you in the region of $1,800, you will fully recover your investment in just over four year.

All these calculations are based on the price of electricity never rising and we all know that that will never happen.

Using energy from solar is very good alternative to the current energy resource for electricity. The solar power system can really generate a good amount of electricity that would help you to reduce your power bill by 80% to 90% and save your money as never before.

The benefits of using the solar energy resource for electricity are many and you can learn them as following. The first benefit that you will save thousands if you use this resource of electrcity. The solar energy is free and can be enough for all your home’s power.

The second benefit will be the clean of that resources, the solar energy resource is one of the most cleanest energy resource in our planet. So, you will save your money as well as save your environment and children when you use these types of energy.

But what about building a small solar pane for my home? Is that a smart idea?. Of course it is a very good and smart idea to own a small solar system for your home electricity. You can even build those systems by your hand in your free time. You can build more than one kit for that issue.

Don’t waste your money, you can reduce your electricity pill by %85 when you use these solar kits. And you can build those systems by your hand. It is not difficult to be built and you will be surprised when the electricity company had to pay you instead of getting money from you.

Green energy kind of sounds like a comic book hero, does it mean it? Of course it is not. It is actually a way you can save hundreds, or even thousands, on your utility bills. It is much easier than you may have thought.
Today the two most common forms of renewable, none-polluting (green) energy are solar power and wind power. This alternative would be a great benefit for the community.

Between the two, more people are probably familiar with solar power. We have seen solar panels on roofs for decades. A solar panel is just a way to capture the energy of the sun and convert it into electricity. That electricity is then used or stored.

Solar panels are completely green and do not pollute the environment at all. The sunlight is a renewable source of energy so we do not have to worry about running out.

Wind power is captured by wind turbines, which look very much like windmills. These turbines then convert that energy into electricity which can be stored for later use.

Turbines have come a long way in the last few years, the technology has advanced to the point where the turbines are now small enough for household use, and you can install a turbine in your backyard or on your roof.
Building your own turbine is the option that makes the most sense since it would cost over $600 to buy one. There are manuals available today that will show you how to easily and quickly build your own wind turbine using regular household tools and using materials you can buy at your local hardware store.
This option makes more sense for most people since it will only cost around $200 and it will only take you a month or two to recoup your investment.

It really does not matter if you choose solar power, wind power, or a combination of both, the important thing is that you take full advantage of current technology to use green energy to save the planet as well as save your own money.