A home made power systems may not completely take you off the power grid but could save you hundreds maybe even thousands of dollars on your energy bill each year. What if you could even sell surplus power back to the same grid you buy it from? You may even want to do your part to help alleviate global warming by using alternative forms of energy.

solar energy produces zero emissions and have little affect on global warming due to its passive abilities. With a guide, manual or complete set of instructions you could do it yourself and build a solar power system cheap often for a fraction of the cost of a complete kit or installation. Many companies sell complete kit, panels and inverters and you can sometimes find them in auctions. Purchasing solar panels is just the start of building a system that will produce from the sun free. If you have basic electrical knowledge and instructions you be able to create your own system at a very reasonable cost.

As solar panels become more efficient and cheaper to purchase producing electricity from the sun will become more feasible. You may even consider other forms of alternative energy along with solar power to reduce your dependence on the grid or your local utility company. As prices continue to drop and panels become cheaper you will see larger and more complex systems and more residential homes with rooftop installations.

Depending on the area of the country you live in you should always consider a backup source of power. Batteries are a great storage solution for excess energy during peak production to use for a rainy or cloudy day. You could even consider combining wind energy to further reduce dependence on the grid. It is now not unusual to see a PV system combined with the wind turbine as a reasonable solution to save money and reduce reliance on the grid.

Solar panels are considered passive devices and energy is produced when solar energy comes in contact with the surface of the panel. The power created is direct current much like the current found in batteries and must be converted to alternating current or AC that can be used throughout typical home. A device called an inverter converts direct current to alternating current. The inverter turns direct current in to alternating current. Any excess that is produced can be stored in batteries or put back onto the grid and can be sold back to your local power company.

If you have a guide or complete set of instructions for home made power systems you could join the growing ranks who are building small systems and saving hundreds and thousands of dollars yearly on their electric bill. It is not uncommon in the southwest United States and the trend is more power companies are building large photo voltaic arrays that generate megawatts of electricity enough to power a small town. If you are striving for energy independence using renewable forms of energy why not yet in on the growing trend and build a DIY solar power system and save money. Have you built your own home power system? I’d like to here about it.

Wind power, solar power and sustainable energy words on everyone’s lips now days. I’ve been in the modular housing industry for the past 15 years, more and more people are looking for the energy saving appliances, and the industry has been trying to respond to the demand. But for the most part we’ve had to install Sun Tubes (day lighting systems) or Roof Windows that open to help with the cooling etc.

Thanks to the Federal Residential Renewable Energy Tax Credit. Customers are beginning to inquire into wind turbines, solar panels and such.  One company out there I’ve just learned about by the name of WindEnergy7. Has a nifty roof mounted wind and solar hybrid system that can generate up to 850 watts of power. Add 1 or 2 of these units or just a single wind turbine and upgrade the system as your budget allows. 

The hybrid kits start at just under $3000. And the manufacturer claims the wind
turbine only requires a minimum wind resource of zone 2 or better to pay for
itself. Don’t worry if you don’t have a south facing roof surface, these units
can be perched on a mast out from under the trees and turned into the suns path.
What’s unique about these hybrid units is the system generates electricity
during the day even without a breeze, and at night when the wind typically picks
up. Most home owners are installing wind turbines and solar panels on their
homes to help provide lighting for their residents, and should continue to
practice conserving electricity by using compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) or even
better yet LED bulbs (light emitting diodes), which use less than a third of the
energy of a compact fluorescent. Helping you stretch out the energy produced by
your wind energy system If you would like more information on this system
follow the link provided, there you will find wind resource maps and information
on your states net metering policies and much more. 

I hope you found this information useful, and would kindly convey your thoughts in the comment forum below. Please come back often to read about other sustainable energy products on review. 
Thanks for reading!

Where does one start? Not any of the renewable energy technologies we have today will be enough to wean us off fossil fuels in the near future. Nor is any of it cost effective, in other words if my annual electric bill is less than one thousand dollars annually, and the cost of installing a solar and or wind energy system is easily thirty thousand dollars plus interest on the loan, and still not produce 100% of my energy needs. (Because these only work under the right conditions.) It would take over thirty years just to pay for itself and still have an electric bill to pay every month.

One of the hurdles is the ancient transmission grid, parts of which date back generations divided into many balancing areas, designed to help mange distribution of power and some are so localized they can’t communicate with the neighboring grid resulting in wasted electricity, rather than sharing it.

The idea of a smart grid, is to upgrade the transmission lines by install electric super highways, connection all of the renewable energy farms to cities and remote areas of the country and allowing home owners to sell their extra energy back into the system.

In California a company by the name of Konarka is developing printable solar ink making it possible to create flexible shingles and exterior paint capable of generating electricity for a tenth the cost of conventional solar cells. And there are plenty of wind turbine companies making smaller quiet residential wind generators. Hopefully the United States Energy Task Force (Process Used to Develop the National Energy Policy)

Could convince congress to subsidize the mass production of these technologies like they do with corn based ethanol, also subsidize the utility companies allowing them to purchase large quantities of these products, package them together and lease the equipment to home owners (much like the satellite companies install their equipment) and you would subscribe to the service. This would allow these renewable energy companies to mass product their product reducing the production cost per unit and also reducing the need to build more power plaints.

What about transportation? This is the second largest generator of green house gases in the United States, our use of gasoline & deisel in this country is unbelievable; we use so much fuel that one-penny per gallon ads up to over a billion dollars in a year’s time, and emits three hundred and thirty million tons of carbon into atmosphere annually. The gas mileage of domestically manufactured vehicles is the lowest in the world. How do we go about fixing this, Mr. T. Boone Pickens is for natural gas powered vehicle, this would reduce the importing of oil and apparently natural gas has the same B.T.U.’s as diesel fuel making it possible to run in our nations diesel trucking industry. But it still is a fossil fuel and it still puts green house gases in the atmosphere. And will need to distribute natural gas to every gas station. (A bridge until something better comes along.) GM is working on an electric car "again" this one though has a onboard generator that’s used to charge the batteries on long trips. If this generator ran on natural gas and if they added solar cells and even wind turbines under the hood where the radiator use to be. This would generator power even sitting in the driveway at home, as would the kinetic wind energy as you drive down the road, lowering the use of the onboard generator. By the way, Gm is not using natural gas, wind or solar in their new electric car that I’m aware of. The one I like is the Honda SCX hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, to bad there is no eas way to fill up the tank. Maybe someone will come up with a solar powered machine that generates hydrogen from tap water.

So here’s the question. If you had the ability to develop the nation’s renewable energy policy, what would you like to do? Thanks, for reading!