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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…

The Facts

If you’ve read our other reviews you’ll know we always test out the product before we recommend it.  Yep, we done read the whole guide and watched all the video’s. Twice as a matter of fact, because even though we’ve ‘been there done that’ with other guides, the design of the solar panel in GreenDIYEnergy made us want to take another shot.  More on that later.

If you’ve done any searching on Google for other reviews of this product, you’ll probably have seen a few people asking the question ‘is it a scam?’.

Ok, lets address that.  It’s a fair question, we get it, no one wants to lay out hard earned cash for a bum product.  What irks us are those who feed off the paranoia.  Ooooh, don’t buy this product until you read our review or you’ll get scammed.  Sure as night follows day they then do everything in their power to encourage you to buy a copy.

Are there crap DIY guides out there?  For shnizzle – heaps actually!

Do we recommend any of them? No, because then we’d look stupid and you’d never come visit us again.  Plus we’re Australian, and Aussies are trustworthy.  Also, if you think we’re wrong about a product we recommend, let us know and we’ll strap Ash down and wax his legs.  Ash is a hairy, hairy man.

Also, if you don’t like the guide, getting a refund for these things is easy.  We know, we’ve done it.

Anyway, the point is these guides (the good ones) do work.  They are instructional.  They do take it step-by-step.  The creators put a lot of effort into producing a quality DIY product.  Anyone who says otherwise has an agenda.  Get a copy from our site, don’t get it from our site…we don’t mind.  But please have a go!  If you can’t afford $50 bucks to take a shot, the reality is you can’t afford solar power.  Try a lottery ticket instead.

The Nitty Gritty

So what’s inside? As is typical of these types of guides,  GreenDIYEnergy has a 46 page pdf which sets out the basics.

THE GUIDE

We start with an Introduction to solar and wind power, the benefits, and whats in store for the remainder of the guide.  We sort of liked the approach the creators took because there is less ‘feel-good’ hype about how we’ll be doing our bit for the environment and more practical information about solar power components, whats involved in on-grid and off-grid systems, a crash course in electronics and the like.  Minimal fluff is a plus, in our view.

PV system components come next, which explains solar cells, charge controllers, battery banks, inverters, AC and DC loads, breaker panels – essentially an outline of the backbone of your solar array.  If these terms don’t mean anything to you now, they soon will.

Electrical fundamentals are covered in greater detail.  This is an essential part of the guide and one of the areas that some other products are a bit light on.  We appreciated the info on volts, amps, kwh, series and parallel circuits, and how to hook up your solar cells in your panel. There are electrical wiring plans – yep, full plans to make sure your panel wiring is correct.  Many products don’t include this level of detail.

This was then complimented by a section on safety and compliance which outlined important aspects of installing a grid tied system and ensuring your array is within local guidelines.

Tools & materials were covered in the detail one would expect.  We always like having our shopping list of items readily available to hand to unsuspecting clerks at the local hardware store rather than having to shuffle through aisle after aisle ourselves.  Nice one.

Batteries. Don’t underestimate their importance to a functional solar system.  After the PV cells, they are probably the second most expensive element in the system and its important to understand what deep-cycle batteries are, their specs, how to connect them properly and how to avoid overcharging and deterioration.  Fortunately, these elements are covered and we liked the fact there was a real focus on your battery bank.

Mounting and installing your solar panels – this is an aspect that not all guides cover in the level of detail we think they should.  It’s an important element, after all – what’s the use in having a brilliant set of panels if you can’t get them on the roof and generating power.

There is also a home audit starter kit, so you can calculate your solar panel needs.

VIDEO SERIES

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again.  We freaken love videos.

The video series in GreenDIYEnergy are solid.  They are helpfully broken down into sections, which for the solar panel included:

• Tools and materials;
• Preparing your tab wire;
• Connecting your PV cells into strings and testing conductivity;
• Connecting PV strings with bus wire and affixing to  backpanel;
• Affixing cells to frontpanel;
• Waterproofing your panel;
• Building your aluminum frame;
• Completing panel wiring and connecting the junction box;
• Installing your completed panel;

We said earlier we liked the design.  One of the issues we have had with some of our panels where the cells were fixed to a backpanel, and where there was space between the cells and the plexiglass cover, was condensation.  This design has the cells affixed to the glass frontpanel which should decrease loss of efficiency and prevent condensation building up over the PV cells and attributing to degradation.

What Will It Set Me Back?

GreenDIYEnergy is currently selling for $49.97, which some folk will advertise as a discount, but trust us, everyone’s paying the same price.  However, you can get it through our link which will also include a free membership to GreenEcoClub, worth $27.

The Skinny

This Green DIY Energy review has already outlined some of the benefits but there are a few extras you should know about.  The guys seem determined to forge a reputation for themselves in the industry and offer free lifetime updates for all of their products, including this one.

The customer support is good.  We submitted a few tickets (more to test it than anything else) and whilst we had to wait a day for one response, the second came within the hour.  Not too bad.

Any cons?  One for us was the $98 GreenDIYEnergy nominates as the cost of building a panel.  We think it would cost a bit more but there are some tips on getting cheap materials.  We’ll update you once we’ve completed our next panel project.  Previously we’ve been able to do panels for under $150.

We just don’t see how you can go wrong with the sort of detail the guide and video series provides.  If there are questions, you can and SHOULD ask them of the GreenDIYEnergy guys and you will get the help you need.  After sale customer support is one of the major pro’s with this guide and we think its essential.  There’s nothing worse than getting a DIY guide and then feeling like you’ve been left hanging as soon as you hit a problem.

Green DIY Energy is a good little product, and one worth taking a look at if you’re in the demographic looking for detailed guidance on how to build a solar power system.

Click to get your copy of GreenDIYEnergy

and a free GreenEcoClub membership