Can You Really Save Money With Homemade Solar Panels?

Earth4Energy is a comprehensive guide that teaches you how to build homemade solar panels and a wind turbine system at a fraction of the cost compared to professionally installed systems. It also claims to save you anywhere from 80% or more on the cost of your home electricity. However, is it true? Does the guide really help people in achieving these goals? Well let's examine these claims one by one.

The site claims that you can build your own home solar or wind turbine system for less than $200. Let's quickly look at the low cost of building homemade solar panels. According to the guide, solar panels can be easily constructed with a budget of around $150, which is a fraction of the cost compared to those professional installs.

So how many solar panels will you need for your home? Let's do some simple calculations. According to the Department of Energy the average household in America consumes 10,656 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year, or about 900 kWh per month.

The number of solar panels it takes to power a home varies from one home to the next. Several factors influence the final number of panels. The most significant among these is the amount of electricity consumed and the amount of available sunlight on a daily basis.

Solar panels are measured by the amount of watts they produce at peak sunlight. A 200-watt solar power panel will produce 200 watts of electricity per hour of direct sunlight. If you use 1,000 watts per hour (1 kilowatt-hour), then you need five 200-watt solar panels to compensate (ten 100-watt panels and so on).

In that case, it would take only five solar panels to power the house. Unfortunately, there is more than one hour in a day. To compensate for the majority of each day when there is no direct sunlight, you must add panels to the system. An average home requires about a 5- or 6-kilowatt solar system. While the home may only use 1 kW of power in its busiest hour, the extra panels will make up for power used at night.
This excess power produced during peak sunlight can be stored in batteries for later use, or sent back to the regional electric grid and "traded" for grid power at night.

Given the numbers and panel ratings above, a 5-kW system would require 25 solar power panels to completely power the house. Just remember that these are simplistic numbers designed to provide a general idea of how many solar panels it takes to power a house.

Take into account that a professionally installed 5-kW system, including installation, for solar panels, inverter box, wiring, etc., is approximately $30-40,000 for a single family house. So now you do the calculating. 25 homemade solar panels at $150 per panel equals $3750 or one-tenth the price of a professionally install! Now that's a considerable savings. Moreover, what this also means is that you will be able to pay back your investment in about three to four years and enjoy free electricity for a lifetime from that point on!

Regarding the wind turbine system - If you live in a windy area the wind turbine system could be an ideal energy saver for you. According to the guide the wind turbine kit will cost you around $100. Once the system has been set up you can look forward to enjoying savings on your electric bill for the next three to five years. However, unlike the solar panel system the downside is don't expect the wind system to provide you with significant energy savings.

What I especially liked about the guide were the user-friendly, clear, step-by-step fully illustrated manuals and easy to follow video instructions. I also liked the part that you can learn how to actually make a profit on the electricity your solar panels produce by selling electricity produced back to your electric company. In addition, you can also create for yourself a potential small business by selling your solar panels to friends and neighbors

Overall, if you enjoy the do it yourself money-savings approach then I would highly recommend the Earth4Energy guide because of the energy savings you will definitely benefit from and for the positive effects it will have on the environment.

For more information please visit: http://www.my-homemade-solar-panels.info

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