GreenDIYEnergy Review

Our rating: Official Site: GreenDIYEnergy Having spent a fair bit of time with this DIY Solar Power guide, we thought it was time we gave you the benefit of our GreenDIYEnergy Review. To be honest, having trawled through a lot of semi impressive stuff of late (there are literally dozens of these types of guides [...]

Home Made Energy Review

Our rating: Official Site: Home Made Energy Check out our video review of HomeMade Energy. When the good lads at Home Made Energy, Bill and Ben Ford, offered to let us take a gander at their own alternative energy product we were all too happy to oblige. If you’ve taken a look at some of [...]

Magnets 4 Energy Review – Magnetic Renewable Energy

Official Site: Magnets 4 Energy If you’ve been keeping tabs on recent posts, you’ll see we’ve been taking a look at magnetic renewable energy and how it can form a viable alternative or complimentary addition to a home energy network. We were asked to undertake a Magnets 4 Energy Review to see how to construct [...]

Earth 4 Energy Review

Our Rating: Official Site: Earth 4 Energy Now includes 30 Day Free membership to “GreenEcoClub”. Plenty of people will provide an Earth4Energy review saying the product is great, but few actually tell us why or whether it can really benefit our efforts to take advantage of wind and solar power in the home. For those of us [...]

Sunforce 45444 600W Wind Turbine Review

Posted by admin on October 30th, 2011

Sunforce 45444 600W Wind Turbine

If you aren’t inclined towards learning how to build a wind turbine, the good news is there are plenty of pre-fab options on the market that can produce decent power on a limited budget. A competitive market for wind and solar products is really starting to produce some high quality, low cost alternatives to DIY wind power. These can be particularly useful if the relocation of the wind turbine system is required.

The Sunforce 45444 600W Wind Turbine is just such an option.

Product Features

This Sunforce 600 Watt 12/24 V Wind Turbine charges both 12 volt and 24 volt battery banks and is particularly ideal for remote locations in need of backup power.

The turbine only requires a minimum operating wind speed of 4mph (with anything over 14mph providing the desired 600W), making this a good choice for areas with low or inconsistent wind.

With ‘industrial strength’ design and fiberglass blades designed with noise reduction in mind, it’s the sort of turbine that can be used in a wide range of environments, and operate close to your camp, cottage or home without being an eye-sore or keeping you awake at night.

The package itself includes the three blades, nose cone, turbine and hub, high efficiency MPPT charge controller, vertical tail, amp meter, and replacement screw packs just in case you lose a few during installation or relocation. In other words, its a full blow system, which when combined with its 600 watt capacity accounts, perhaps justifiably, for the higher price point. There are cheaper options, but obviously the output is also significantly lower.

First Biodiesel Plant Proposed for Schuylkill Pennsylvania

Posted by admin on October 20th, 2011

NAGSCO Corp., which is working with Liberty Oil, intends to construct its first biodiesel plant in Schuylkill County, to convert food waste oil into biodiesel fuel.

The proposed facility is under scrutiny from Schuylkill County Council members and the Schuylkill County Municipal Authority concerned about the potential local impact, especially because the proposed facility will be close to two community playgrounds.

Schuylkill County Council member Councilman Andy Palokas said, “The borough is doing some research to see what laws apply. We want to make sure we know our rights and we want to make sure we do what’s best for our residents,” The Republican Herald newspaper reported.

Canadian Oil Sands – A Good Investment? Not in Europe, Apparently

Posted by admin on October 14th, 2011

Any American watching cable TV over the past few months can hardly fail to have noticed the seemingly ubiquitous advertisements extolling the virtues of extracting oil from Canadian oil sands, which the commentators assure their audience has a carbon footprint largely comparable with traditional fossil fuels, and which, if developed will provide not only millions of new jobs but billions of dollars for governments as well as energy security by weaning the Western Hemisphere off its addiction to terrorism-tainted Middle East oil.

But don’t break out your checkbook just yet.

Apparently those pesky Eurocrats in Brussels haven’t gotten the message, as on 4 October the European Commission proposed that oil sands crude be ranked as a dirtier source of fuel compared with oil from conventional wells.

Cheap Solar Panel Materials – Where To Find Them

Posted by admin on September 14th, 2011

Cheap Solar Panel Materials

So you’ve done the research and you’re ready to start on some DIY solar panels. Great. But where do you find all the materials that you’ll need to create the solar panels? And how do you get them for cheap?

Here, we will focus on how to find the following cheap solar panel materials full solar panels, solar PV cells, and deep cycle batteries. When you use cheap solar panel materials to create your solar panels, you can save hundreds and sometimes even thousands of dollars.

Solar Power Lighting – Cost Savings That Look A Million Bucks

Posted by admin on August 2nd, 2011

Solar Power Lighting

Solar power lighting involves special kind of lights that help to conserve energy, while cutting your power bills in half. These lights can be much more efficient than your traditional lights. There are many applications that can be suited for solar power lighting systems, because the lights keep power usage to a minimum. When you use these kinds of systems, you are not only saving money, but you are also being environmentally more responsible.

Many of the solar powered lighting systems are generally resistant to weather fluctuations. They can resist winds, rain, and shocks. They are very flexible in that they can be used both outdoors and indoors. Lanterns, tube lights, LED accessories, waterproof solar ground markers, and wall luminaires are just a few of the solar powered lightning applications.

Vertical Axis Wind Turbines

Posted by admin on June 21st, 2011

Going Green With Vertical Axis Wind Turbines

Going green with vertical axis wind turbines? It’s everywhere. On the news, in the magazines and newspapers, you see people and companies that are going green. Everyone wants to know how to get cheaper power. Doing a basic search on the Internet finds hundreds of videos made by everyday people who have created and built their own wind power.

There are even communities whose sole purpose is to “get off the grid”. Off the grid means that they have built wind turbines and solar panels to the point of not even needing any electricity from the power company. They are totally independent. This may have been unbelievable in the past years, but it is a fact in today’s world.

Experts have estimated that the solar and wind power industries have the potential to be up into the billions of dollars. In the past, it was extremely expensive and difficult for the average person to even think about getting solar power or wind power devices installed on their homes. Now, because of the advancements in technology and the advancements in communications, every day people can build their own wind turbine for a fraction of yesterday’s cost.

Wind Generators For Home Use – Power Inverters and Completion

Posted by admin on May 26th, 2011

Wind Generators For Home Use – Power Inverters & Completion

We’re almost there! This is part 5 and the final section of our tutorial on how to build a wind turbine so lets get cracking.

Next, you’ll need a way to use the power generated by the wind turbine. This is where the AC inverter comes into the picture. As with the DC power generator, you have the option of building your own AC inverter. Again, you can search online for various schematics and blueprints on building your own AC inverter, but for the purposes of this article, we’ll just advise you to purchase one.

Why would you need an AC inverter? Wind generators for home use need them to convert your direct current (DC) in the battery to alternative current (AC). This can be used with certain kinds of transformers for appliances that use AC power, but most importantly, you’ll need an AC inverter in order to hook up your everyday house hold appliances.

Homemade Wind Turbine Charge Controller

Posted by admin on May 14th, 2011

Homemade Wind Turbine Charge Controller

In part 4 of our tutorial on how to build a wind turbine we’re moving on to connecting the DC motor to our homemade wind turbine charge controller. This is the unit that runs everything, controlling and monitoring the batteries in your wind turbine. It is in charge, so to speak (sorry…couldn’t resist).

You can get a charge controller anywhere where there is alternative energy equipment for sale. Ebay and Craigslist are some places to check for cheap options.

Whether you’re going to purchase or build a homemade wind turbine charge controller, the basic components are as follows:

The actual controller -this is a little perforated board that connects everything.
Toggle bracket with switches or buttons – this will allow you to manually switch or toggle between charging your batteries and dumping the power to a secondary load.
Heat sink – this may have two or more 40 amp diodes bolted to it.
Double row of gold rectangles across the top – this is called a dummy load and is made up of very high watt resistors. This is where your extra power will be channeled into, once your batteries are charged up. This helps prevent your batteries from being destroyed, due to overcharging.
Main fuse for the turbine – this is usually a small 40 amp cube relay. It sends the power from the turbine unit either to the dummy load or to your batteries.

DIY Wind Turbine Generator and Mount

Posted by admin on May 13th, 2011

DIY Wind Turbine Generator & Mount

In part 3 of our tutorial on how to build a wind turbine we move on to the DIY Wind Turbine motor. It’s a quicky, but important. Now, unless you’re highly technically gifted, you’ll probably want to keep things simple, at least for your first try in building a wind turbine. We are going to address this in later tutorials, but for the time being if you’re really interested in building your own motor from scratch, then you can just Google “DC motor schematics” to get a ton of results.

A word of caution, if you’re a beginner with little to no experience in building DIY wind turbine generators or motors, it may be best if you just purchase one. They will add to the cost of your total turbine, but of all the components save maybe the charge controller, this is the one to purchase. If you’re not interested in building your own, you can check your local junk yard, Craigslist, or EBay for surplus permanent magnet DC motors for this project.

How To Build A Wind Turbine Blades and Hub

Posted by admin on May 12th, 2011

How To Build A Wind Turbine Blades and Hub

The first order of business in part 2 of our tutorial on how to build a wind turbine involves building the wind turbine blades – and hub. For the wind turbine blades the most cost-effective way is to purchase some PVC pipes from your local hardware store. Your local Home Depot, Ace Hardware, Bunnings for us Aussies or even Wal-Mart will have these readily available.

How To Build Wind Turbine Blades

You’ll want to buy your PVC pipes the same length as what you are going to make your blades. That means if your wind turbine blades are going to be 10 inches, you’ll want to make sure your PVC pipe is going to be 10 inches in length. Nothing is written in stone here, and some wind turbines have different blade lengths. You’ll want to use your common sense when deciding what length you’ll use, but remember that your pipe should be 1/5 as thick as it is long to give the wind turbine blades structural integrity.

So for example, if you have 50 cm blades that you’re going to use, then your PVC pipe has a diameter of 10 cm. (10cm/50cm = 1/5). From one pipe you’ll make four blades (either four for your turbine or three for the turbine and a spare).

Wind Turbines For The Home Tutorial

Posted by admin on May 8th, 2011

Wind Turbines For The Home – Overview

You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on purchasing wind turbines, just so that you can experience an environmentally friendly home and save money on power consumption. This tutorial series will show you how to build your very own DIY wind turbines for the home.

The basics will be covered here, so if you’re an engineer or electrician, you may find this article a little too elementary. If you’re reasonably new to diy wind power gig and just want to find a way to “get off the grid” so to speak, but don’t have the first clue as to how to get started, then this article may be very valuable to you.

This is the first of a five part series which will be covering:

DIY wind power design and planning your project;
How to build wind turbine blades and hub;
Installing your wind turbine generator and mount;
Your homemade wind turbine charge controller;
Batteries, power inverter and siting your wind turbine.

How Wind Turbines Work

Posted by admin on May 8th, 2011

How Wind Turbines Work – An Overview

We’ve finally gotten ourselves organized and have put together a tutorial series on building diy wind turbines for the home, but before we launch into that we thought it would be helpful to provide a summary on how wind turbines work.

This isn’t intended to be an exhaustive summary, and we’ll delve into the specifics in our main tutorial as well as some follow up guides on rigging up your own charge controllers.

Bare with us though, the electronic side of diy power is not our strong point, so we occasionally need to take outside advice on our practices to make sure they are a-ok before passing them on to you.

E4L DIY Solar Panels Revisited

Posted by admin on May 5th, 2011

We’re stoked about the fact that we now get hundreds of new visitors a day to our site, and we wanted to make sure that if you’re one of them, you don’t miss out on some of our best DIY Solar Power tips, tidbits and tutorials.

So, here are some of our past articles which we (humbly) think are worth revisiting.

Solar Battery Chargers – Clean and Convenient

Posted by admin on April 21st, 2011

When most people think of solar power, they think of large panels which convert sunlight into energy. Although these larger panels are in regular use in domestic and commercial locations, there have been many new innovations to solar energy applications in the past few years, changing the range of applications for solar power. Solar battery chargers are just one such application.

Thanks to developing solar technology, it is now possible to use solar power for battery and appliance charging. Solar battery chargers have a wide variety of uses, from car battery chargers, laptops, to cell phone chargers. If you’re looking to get into solar energy, but don’t have the resources to buy huge solar panels, getting simple battery chargers is a great step in the right direction.

Besides the fact that you’re using a clean and renewable form of energy, there are also other benefits to using a solar battery charger. Solar cells are extremely durable, are smaller and many are capable of being transported.

Solar Power Inverter – DC to AC Power Inverter

Posted by admin on April 19th, 2011

A solar power inverter is a device which allows DC battery or solar panel power to be converted into AC power, the most common form of usable electricity for devices which use mains power.

This sentence might seem a bit complex, so let’s break it down. With solar power, the energy from the sun hits the panels, and through a series of reactions within the solar cell, generates a form of unidirectional flow of electrons known as direct current (DC). This energy can be used to power batteries, but it isn’t very efficient with actual appliances or other devices which require mains power, and often can’t be used without special adaptors. It makaes an inverter an essentail part of your DIY solar panels.

A DC to AC power inverter converts the DC electricity to alternating current (AC) electricity, which suffers less degradation when transmitted over distance, and which can be easily controlled to provide specific voltage for use with appliances.

What You Need to Know About Flexible Solar Panels

Posted by admin on April 14th, 2011

For decades, scientists and environmentalists alike have been talking about solar power, but until recently, most people were not able to use it due to the cost. Thankfully, there have been many advances in the field that have made solar power affordable. Even if you are not interested in equipping your home with a complete solar panel system, there are other ways that you can take advantage of the sun’s natural energy and use it to your benefit. A perfect example of this is flexible solar panels.

With flexible solar panels, a convenient form of solar power chargers, you have the ability to power a device like your laptop long after the battery has died, and when access to conventional power is limited. Great for situations like camping or hiking where you are out in the open without access to power, flexible solar panels can be a lifesaver. When you use flexible cells, you will never have to worry about whether you charged your laptop or camera battery again.

These lightweight, foldable panels are easy to set up and just as easy to break down, so you can harness the energy of the sun fast when you need it. They are incredibly portable, and are perfect if you are an outdoor enthusiast, travel photographer, or writer on the go.

Green Marketing Strategies For Small Business

Posted by admin on March 3rd, 2011

Are you a business owner?

The reason we ask is because you might be leaving money on the table, and not even realize it. What are we talking about? Green marketing.

Consumer demand for companies who offer sustainable products and services is in a phase of near exponential growth, and is providing environmentally savvy business owners with a unique opportunity to outperform their competitors.

What is Green Marketing?

Green marketing is a means by which environmentally responsible companies can promote their product or service by virtue of their environmental benefits.

Has there been a better time to cash in on the ‘going green’ movement?

Wind Power Pros and Cons

Posted by admin on February 21st, 2011

There are conflicts among people regarding the use of wind power. Both sides have their opinion on why people should go for or abandon the idea of using wind power as an energy source.

Each side have legitimate reasons for thinking the way they do and to be able to come up with sound judgment over this matter, it is best to lay out the wind power pros and cons. After reading them we believe you can make an informed decision with regards to the usage or non usage of wind power.

Australian Federal Solar Rebate Scheme Slammed For Slow Payments

Posted by admin on February 18th, 2011

Delays of up to eight months have been experienced by almost nine thousand Australian’s awaiting the $1,000 solar hot water rebate, the Herald Sun reported today.

Troubles with a new computer systems have been cited as the cause for the delay, and the Federal Government aims to clear the backlog which is reporetedly in the vacinity of $7.8M by the end of March.

That’s a fair chunk of change and comes as a blow to incentives for people to incur the cost of energy efficient upgrades to their home.

For the full article, visit The Herald Sun

Are You Getting The Most Out Of Alternative Energy Solutions?

Posted by admin on February 15th, 2011

We were pondering an interesting conundrum whilst sitting on the deck sipping a few cold bevies on the weekend (we call them stubbies). We were lounging around in a ridiculously comfortable outdoor setting that our mate purchased to sit under his brand spanking pergola.

Now, our friend (lets call him rich bastard, because that’s what he is) is one of those guys that likes to have the latest gadget or electronic devices. I don’t think he’s really all that interested in alternative energy, but since his business took off, he hasn’t had to worry too much about coin – so when he built his new house, he went all out with the energy efficiency. We’re talking professionally installed, space age looking stuff, so the boys and I are suitable envious of the solar power rig he has adorning his roof.

An interesting dichotomy presented itself when I was asked (nay, ordered) to fetch another round of ales from the bar fridge.

Small Wind Turbines For Home Use

Posted by admin on January 22nd, 2011

Because of the increasing cost of electricity, a lot of people are trying to find other means of producing electrical energy. Wind energy is one of the best sources of energy available because it does not produce pollution like other sources such as fossil fuels. But some people think that if you are going to use wind energy you should construct huge wind turbines to have enough energy for your home’s consumption, but that is just a myth. We have a lot of small wind turbines for home use that are capable of powering up your household.

Alternative Energy News – Solar Mobile Phones | Patents | Rebates

Posted by admin on January 17th, 2011

Some quick news on recent happenings in the solar world of late:

Tired of your phone battery giving up on you half way through an important call, or that one time you travelled overnight without your charger? The solution may not be tooooo far away, with Apple last week recieving Patent No. 7,868,582 from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, being a solar power system for mobile phones.

A Danish development agency has reportedly invested over US$50,000,000 for a 50.4 megawatt wind power plant in Vietnam.

Massachusetts residents can take advantage of a solar thermal rebate pilot program come February, which will provide incentives for residential hot water projects (check out the MassCEC website for more info).

Evergreen Solar sacks 800 workers as part of a bid to relocate production as part of a joint venture with a company based in central China, citing ‘higher government support’ as the basis of the move.

GreenDIYEnergy Review

Posted by admin on January 7th, 2011

Our rating:

Official Site: GreenDIYEnergy

Having spent a fair bit of time with this DIY Solar Power guide, we thought it was time we gave you the benefit of our GreenDIYEnergy Review.

To be honest, having trawled through a lot of semi impressive stuff of late (there are literally dozens of these types of guides on the market) we weren’t really expecting all that much from a group who are relative newcomers to the homemade solar power and wind power scene. However we were pretty chuffed by the level of detail provided by Green DIY Energy, and their approach to building a solar panel with an aluminum frame gave us plenty of food for thought.

In short, it’s a damn good guide. Here’s why…

Free Solar Panels For Your Home

Posted by admin on January 6th, 2011

We get that DIY Solar Power just isn’t for everyone. If you’ve decided you fit into that category, there is still a way to get free solar panels for your home. What we’re talking about here is “zero down” solar panels.

Many people are now taking advantage of being able to lease solar panels, enabling them to get entire solar systems installed for zero or minimal out of pocket expenses. Considering that the up front installation cost is one of the major factors stopping many people having the benefit of solar power at home, solar leases can present an attractive alternative.

Click here to see if you qualify in your area.

Build Your Own Solar Water Heating Panel

Posted by admin on December 13th, 2010

The solar water heating panel is a product of various enhancements for the use of solar energy. It is also one of the many ways you could save some money. Solar power heating is popular in various countries including Israel, Australia, Japan, Austria, and China. It is proven to be very economical so we advise you to build your own solar water heating panel.

Here are some practical reasons why it is advisable for you to build your own solar water heater.

GreenDIYEnergy Review

Home Made Energy Review

Magnets 4 Energy Review – Magnetic Renewable Energy

Earth 4 Energy Review

Sunforce 45444 600W Wind Turbine

Cheap Solar Panel Materials

Solar Power Lighting

Going Green With Vertical Axis Wind Turbines

Wind Generators For Home Use – Power Inverters & Completion

Homemade Wind Turbine Charge Controller

DIY Wind Turbine Generator & Mount

How To Build A Wind Turbine Blades and Hub

How To Build Wind Turbine Blades

Wind Turbines For The Home – Overview

How Wind Turbines Work – An Overview

DIY Solar Panels

DIY Solar Panels

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