I just wanted to give my viewers a chance to take a sneak peak at the e-book that is offered on this site.

Check it out.

The quick answer is because I am really cheap!

I’d really like to say that I am looking to save the planet. But honestly, the real reason that I started to do research on installing my own solar panels is because I was looking for different ways to save money.

I looked at my monthly expenses to see what was gobbling up most of my money. I cut out a few expenses that I thought were frivolous. I cut my satellite radio, my subscription to Men’s Health, and my monthly tanning bill (just kidding). After cutting out a few things I was saving 20-30 dollars a month. That wasn’t really going to cut it. When I looked at the things I could somewhat control, I looked at my electricity bill and my water bill.

I started out by doing the things that most people so in order to save electricity and water. I made sure the lights were off in empty rooms, I turned off my computer monitor when it wasn’t in use. I cut back watering my lawn every day to every other day. I turned off the water when I was brushing my teeth. These things helped out a little but I was starting to get kind of addicted to cutting my expenses.

I looked into putting huge solar panels on top of my house but it was so expensive to get installed so I had to keep researching.

Then I came across a website called Earth4Energy. It said that it could teach me how to make my own home solar panel for less than $200! Being somewhat skeptical like most people I kept looking. But after doing a bit of research on solar panels, making my own home solar panel seemed like the most viable option.

So I figured what the hell and downloaded the e-book. To my amazement the book did just what the website said that it would do. It showed me step by step on how to make my own home solar panel. It tells you how to configure it and where to get the parts.

I started using my own electricity to power energy hogs like my refrigerator, my computer and my 55 inch plasma TV. My electricity bill went from well over a hundred dollars down to a manageable $33 on average. This book even shows you how to plug your electricity into your main power grid so you can even get money back from the electricity company if you produce more than you take.

I suggest you check out this website and see it for your self.

Make Your Own Electricity

Do it to save the world!!!

Or just do it because you are a cheap ass like me!

Oil is a very political tool. Run by OPEC.

Solar power can be produced 100% domestically in a capitalistic manner. When you have no foreign governments dictating our energy policy, you create an independence that is very important for security. We don’t have to rely on anyone but ourselves. Foreign governments want us to "need" them.

From a practical standpoint, the solar panels will shade the roof somewhat, especially if they are mounted on some kind of support a couple of inches above the roof plane.

Hard to say how much of an effect this would have.

who is right? please quote any numbers? im looking for the actual difference between the two power outputs..many thanks in advance….:)

Well, after doing the math and crunching some numbers, I have to admit the difference is a lot more than I thought it would be.

Lets suppose your panel further from the sun receives 1000 watts of power from the sun.

1000 = x / 150000000^2
x = 2.25 * 10^19

Decreasing the 150 million by 20, instead of 1000 watts of power reaching your panel, you now have

Power = 2.25 * 10^19 / 149000080 ^2 = 1013.4 watts.

A difference of 1.34%

Lets suppose your panel is 25% efficient, and your voltage out is regulated to 100 volts.

The two panels would produce
1000 * 0.25 / 100 = 2.5 amps
and
1013.4 * 0.25 / 100 = 2.5335 amps

… a measurable amount, but not what I would call signifficanty more.

I have to “make” a green city and it will use renewable energy source including solar and wind energy. How would I make the wind and solar energy sustainable and not have shortages of power?

Small places, like a remote house or an island, might have batteries. A large place, like a city, would be connected to a "Grid", or electrical energy transmission system. If the wind stopped blowing, deep in the night, they would pull energy off the grid, from a nuclear plant, or coal-burning generation station, or hydroelectric project many miles away. A town on an island might have a large diesel generator.

To me, green energy seems like pie in the sky. It’s a nice idea in theory, but I don’t think we could ever efficiently put it into practice.

It should be intended to compliment what we have now, not replace it.

Do you have any idea how many windmills it would take to replace one conventional coal fired power plant?

I’m building a solar panel with solar cells from ebay and I wanted to know what supplies will I need other than 1.Solar Cells 2.Soldering Gun 3.Solder 4.Flux Pen 5.Tabbing 6.Tabbing Wire 7.Bus Wire 8. Materials for the frame 9.12 Volt Batteries

What kind of power inverter do I need if I’m trying to charge 12 Volt Car Batteries? I need these supplies to be-able to handle a moderate amount of power because I want to keep adding on cells to my panel. I pretty much know how to make the panel but what all do I need to connect the home built Solar Panel to the batteries? I’m willing to spend around $500.00 to $800 for all the parts total a side from the solar cells. I have 140 3×6 cells I should be buying another 60 and want to make a panels that will charge car batteries. I need to know what parts and equipment I will need aside from the solar panels to to charge them. Equipment that that tells me how much power is flowing and if the batteries are charged are not. Thank you all for viewing my question I am very appreciative to all who help and answer.
-John

the wattage of your power converter will depend on how much power you want to be able to use at any given time. buy one as big as you can afford, you could always add another converter in parallel later if the first one you buy isn’t big enough. the power converter will be used to convert the 12 volts from the batteries into 120 volts to power light, etc. solor panels should produce 12 volts and basically directly connect to the batteries.