Home Made Energy...Review?

[chickylou]

Hi all,

Hubby and I are new to the forum and we are very interested in solar energy and saving money by coming off the grid.

Question: Have any of you bought and followed the Home Made Energy kit where they teach you how to make your own solar panels and wind mills?

If you have, we'd really like to find out if it was worth the purchase.

Thanks so much! We'd like to purchase, but thought we'd ask if others found them do-able.

 

[miss_thenorth]

Hi an d welcome!

No, I haven't even heard of this. But there has got to be a place or forum of sorts that discusses and reviews items. I know if my hubby wants to buy something that he doesn't know about--for example--my dd wanted to buy a chip for her nintendo ds--a chip that you could download about 100 games on--he looked online and found a forum specifically for that. Stange but true.

So I would probably look for things like that -that would give you reviews on the item before you buy.

Good luck!

 

[ron45]

Hi, moving off grid is a big step and I'm not sure what you mean by saving money. It is simple enough to hook all the cells together in a box. When you put it outside facing south is when the fun begins. PV panels an arrays need to extremely weather proof. This is not easy if you build with wood. Any enclosure they are in is going to move as it expands and contracts with temperature changes. The pros take care of this using aluminum and lots of good gasket material to allow that movement while keeping the water out. Paint on plywood will be mean a rigorous regular maintenance schedule to keep those cells dry and happy. Any paint will crack. Any paint.

If there are even the smallest leak moisture as water vapor or liquid will get in there. That will fog the glass. Depending on your needs, i.e. how much you simplify your life, it may be cheaper in the long run to buy the real thing. I have not seen the kits you describe so my comments are based on general DIY materials in common use. Depending on your area and the handiness of the family members you may do better with a DIY wind charger as an adjunct to a more modest pv system.

There is a site http://www.otherpower.com

where they sell kits to build wind chargers. They are very up front about the seriousness of the undertaking and the cost of a tower to put it on. That can be as much or more than the kit. The entire kit minus the tower is 1250 or 1750 depending on the size you build. On this page

http://www.forcefieldmagnets.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=22_30

you will also find a kit of all the metal parts for something around 450 to 500 bux. But you have to make the blades and the part with the wire coils in it and attach the magnets to the two rotors which come in the kit the magnets are separate.

I am going to build one of these with the metal parts kits. These parts are the hard stuff if your are not a metal fabricator. The other stuff can be done in most home shops. There is a forum with very brite people who have built these kits and step by step instructions and pictures in a book on the same page as the kit stuff. Good luck.

You have picked a very time to consider moving off grid. Have you seen Crash Course? It is a no nonsense presentation on why this just could the best idea around in the next ten to twenty years. We went of grid in 1983 never looked back.

Just saw the part about the home made windmills. Be careful about both things. Again, windmills are in the worst conditions imaginable. And the claims made by many wind turbine sellers are not possible when the proper math is applied to their claims. If you poke around on the forum at other power you will get an idea of what I am talking about.

And anyone who tells you you can just put it on your roof is hmmmmmm, not smart or dishonest. That is like mounting your pv array in the shade. They have to be at least 30 feet above the tallest thing around. And those home made turbines from permanent magnet motors are pure snake oil. Same for PVC blades. Do your home work, mostly reading, visit some off grid folks if you can. We started with a small system and grew it over time with mostly used stuff. Talk to the people at Affordable Solar in Albuquerque, or Backwoods Solar in Idaho. Heck talk to everyone you can. These forums abound just don't believe everything everyone tells you including me. Check out what you are told with other sources. I wish you all the best with your adventure.

Ron

 

[philpatton]

I came across a website a few weeks ago that might be of interest and help to answer some of the questions that have been asked. The site is greenpowerscience.com

The deal with projects that involve both solar and wind power. Some are homemade and others deal with kits. The good thing about the site is that they teach through videos that you can access on the computer for free and they explain things so that I can understand them which means that most everyone will.