Hey there, Welcome to my modest piece of cyber-space.
My name is Alex Wilson.
If you’re keen on the idea of generating your own electrical power from the sun and/or the wind, you may want to know something of the advantages and disadvantages of wind and solar power.
Building your own power generating units is simple, inexpensive, very satisfying and loads of fun.
It is also very cost-effective.
You see, any surplus power you generate will be bought from you by your power company, so you can get to the point where your power costs you nothing at all, and…
You get a check from your power company for the surplus power you produce!
I believe the information you’ll find here will be of real value to you. If it is, please pass the word along to your friends. If it’s not, please tell me where I can do things better.
And thanks so much for reading.
Mail this postThe increasing cost of electric power, the economic downturn and the concern that we all feel about the effects of global warming are just some of the reasons why many people are thinking of the possibility of generating their own solar power. They share a hope that it might be economically feasible and that they would have the added bonus of making a contribution to the lessening of the greenhouse effect.
The fact of the matter is that it is a very complex problem to solve as a general proposition because there are so many variables involved one situation to another. For example the cost of electric power varies between 5.8 cents per kilowatt hour in Kentucky to 14.31 cents in New York. It is even higher at 16.7 cents in Hawaii. (<http://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/brochure/electricity/electricity.html> 6/27/200).
There is also a substantial variation in the cost of solar panels when considering home solar power systems. They can vary from $2 per Watt for DIY panels, to $10 per Watt for commercial panels. The number of panels required will also vary considerably depending on your geographic situation. For example Seattle has 2049 hrs of sunshine per annum whilst Phoenix has 3752, so that for every solar panel required in Phoenix to achieve a particular output of electricity, 1.8 panels would be required in Seattle.
The tremendous difference between the cost of DIY panels and those obtained commercially has seen a surge in interest in people wanting to build their own solar panels. For many people this means the difference between having renewable energy providing electricity for their homes and having to stay locked in to the power companies.
For those wishing to pursue this interest there are a number of excellent e-books available on the World Wide Web which give simple and detailed instructions as to how to build solar panels in one’s home workshop. These publications are proving very popular indeed. My favorite among them is a book written by Michael Harvey and you can read about it here. I commend it to you.
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Tags: diy solar panels, global warming, greenhouse effect, home solar power systems, solar panels, solar poweer
There are numerous applications for solar power lighting but probably the two most important are: (1) lighting our households and (2) making life more agreeable in outdoor situations such as camping. This article will attempt to provide simple and pertinent information about these two functions..
Lighting for the outdoors such as when we are out camping is usually provided by small petrol engine driven generators. These are fairly expensive to buy and to run. They are also noisy and smelly, to say nothing of their pollution. Solar power lighting on the other hand is less expensive (as a do-it-yourself project), far more portable and is totally non-polluting. The downside is that batteries required to store the power generated from the sunlight so that it is available at night. Admittedly these batteries are heavy to handle but no more so than a petrol or diesel engine generator set.
Solar power can also be used to generate electricity for the household. This is becoming a more common practice due to the falling prices of solar panels and the increasing prices of the power supplied by utilities. The solar panels are usually placed on the house roof and could cost as much as $20,000 to supply the needs of an average household. This is very much a ballpark figure as there are so many variables involved. For example many people these days build their own solar panels to provide solar power lighting simply because this can be done for as little as 25% of the cost of a commercially built product.
There are a number of excellent e-books available on the Internet that provide step by step directions for constructing your own solar panels and wind turbine generators and these are well worth reading.
The best of these e-books in my view is one written by Michael Harvey and you can find it here.
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Tags: carbon footprint, renewable energy, solar arrayto, solar panels, solar power, Solar power lighting
Residential solar power systems certainly generate a lot of uncertainty among prospective users. People seem to find themselves torn between whether or not it is a feasible solution to reducing power costs in the first place, with the question of where to buy and how much to pay for a commercially produced product being the second most important question. This article will briefly discuss some of the issues involved in these dilemmas in the hope that it will help people in their decision making.
To delve thoroughly into the economics of solar versus supplied, or grid power is beyond the scope of this article, I think it would be agreed by the majority of people that, generally speaking, solar power in the long run would be a most economical proposition. In the short run this would not be so, and the breakeven point would depend on the cost of the solar unit and supplied electricity. With the costs of commercial units gradually reducing and the cost of supplied electricity gradually increasing we are faced with an ever changing breakeven point. But as I said, generally speaking the more economical solution would be solar power.
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The prospect of using wind power is very seductive; but does it really work?
Well it certainly does, and has done for millennia. Wind has powered sailing vessels; it has also powered grain grinding mills. These became known as windmills. The wind has also been used to power water pumps — these were still called windmills but in reality wind pumps would have been a more accurate term.
More recently the wind has been used to drive turbines that produce electricity. Quite simply the wind, acting on the blades or sails of the turbine, causes the turbine to spin thus turning the shaft on which the blades or sails are mounted. The power of this spinning shaft is then used to drive an electric generator.
It is really a very simple process which can be adapted to drive small domestic wind power turbines through to huge commercial turbines.
Many people these days build their own wind turbines and in doing so save a considerable amount of money when compared with the commercial product. Many excellent guides are available on the Internet which take the do-it-yourself handyman through the process of building and installing domestic wind power. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: domestic wind power, how does wind power work, turbine, wind power, wind turbine
Good question; how does solar power work? Why is it relevant that you have an understanding of the basics of home-produced energy? And more importantly, why could such information have a beneficial effect on your life?
Well, first of all, solar power is one of the cleanest, most effective, most efficient and most economical forms all of renewable energy available on the planet.
Secondly, it is now possible to build your own source of domestic solar power, thanks to the many excellent do-it-yourself guides that are available on the Internet.
What this means to you is that you can decrease and even eliminate your reliance on the electric companies’ power grids, and enjoy significant savings. These guides very clearly explain and demonstrate the process of making your own solar energy panels (and even wind turbines). Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: domestic solar power, How Does Solar Power Work, solar, solar energy panels, solar panels, solar power45
Are you having difficulty paying your power bills on time? Do you find yourself wishing that there was some way that you could minimize the use of power? If so, do-it –yourself energy panels could be just what you’re looking for to save money without cutting back on the use of electricity.
Giant strides have been made recently in the provision of renewable energy by utilizing power plants that can be easily built by the home handy-person at minimum cost. These developments may not be known to you, but nonetheless the natural power of the planet is being utilized in a number of ways to provide power for private homes.
This change has been made possible to a large extent because of the availability of excellent guides dealing with do-it-yourself solar energy panels. These have made it possible for homeowners to make their own panels using materials available from hardware stores. It is simply a matter of being provided with a list of materials and then proceeding to follow a simple step-by-step process. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: energy, home solar energy panels, solar
The concept of gaining power from the wind is not new—mankind has been powering boats and mills for thousands of years with the wind.
In more recent times, before the advent of diesel and gasoline engines and electric motors, farmers harnessed the wind to pump water, and then later to generate electricity.
Today, pretty well anybody can harness the wind to generate electricity, and it doesn’t have to cost a bundle of money. Sure, commercial wind turbines are not cheap, but you can build them yourself, and it really isn’t difficult; thousands of people are doing it all ‘round the world—and they’re saving a bundle. All you need is a well written guide that sets the task out in simple steps that really are quite easy to follow. Read the rest of this entry »
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