If you’re looking to learn more about how to construct individual solar panels, you can find a lot of info here. But if you want to make a money saving solar system this weekend, keep reading.

It is completely within your abilities to install your solar system in a weekend. The most surefire way to do this is to get used panels, especially if your experience in building your own solar panels is zero. Getting used panels will save you a ton of time.

Because you’re trying to build a solar system in a weekend, doing things in the most time efficient manner possible is the way to go. Besides getting panels that are already assembled, you can save a ton of time by planning for your solar system a to be grid-tied one.

A grid tied system feeds into your area’s electricity gird and doesn’t use any batteries. Cutting out batteries, and the associated charge controller, will make putting your system together much simpler.

At this point you know that you know that you’ll need solar panels for your grid-tied system, but what else is this plan missing?

To complete your solar system you’ll need to get an inverter, miscellaneous wires and terminal boxes, and a way to mount your panels. Using ground mounted racks to mount your panels is perhaps the most simple and straightforward method, so we’ll assume that you’re going to do that.

It’s in fact quite easy to make your own racks.  It’s as simple as doing some measurements, getting some angle iron and nuts and bolts from the hardware store, and simply putting the pieces together.

While your exact rack solution will depend on your panels, using two ‘L’ shaped pieces of angle iron can mount a few panels each. Simply place the two ‘Ls’ parallel to each other, with their ends mounted to the ground. Think of it as the angle iron forming a triangle with the ground that points to the sky.

Okay, so back to actually constructing your solar system in a weekend.  On Friday night make sure you’ve got your racks for your panels, the panels themselves, an inverter, the wiring needed to hook all the stuff up, and an appointment with a certified electrician to connect your system to the grid.

You need a certified electrician to connect your system to the grid because utility companies will not recognize the electricity your system generates if you don’t. The electrician will also certify that the wiring you did is satisfactory. You should make the appointment at the end of the weekend, because you’ll need some time to wire things together.

Without getting too into specifics, you can see from this post how easy it is to install your own solar system this weekend. With a little planning to have all your materials together on Friday night, a little bit of work on Saturday, and a visit from a electrician on Sunday, and your solar system is ready to start saving you money.

You’ve made your own solar panels and you’ve made sure that they’re set up properly.  It’s solar energy so you can just set it and forget it, right?

You could do that if you’re the kind of person that doesn’t care about their hard work. But in ignoring your solar panels you will be losing power.

Cleaning your solar panels is critical to ensuring that they are generating the maximum amount of electricity possible.  Over time dust and dirt, and probably a stray bird poop or two, build up on your panels and cause a drop in the amount of sunlight that is able to reach the solar cells.

A good layer of dirt and grime can result in power losses of around 15 to 25%.

So if your DIY solar panels were saving $100 a month, not cleaning them is like losing up to $300 a year. And that’s not even accounting for any other sort of stuff that can be up there.

A leaf or two covering up a couple of the cells in the panels can result in energy losses of anywhere from 50 to 75%!  I shouldn’t have to point out that this could be a lot of money.

When it comes to cleaning your panels, large debris can simply be wiped free. To rid the panels of grime and dirt, wipe them down with a cleaner and paper towels. Make sure that the cleaner you choose is non-abrasive.

If you want, you can just hose down your panels from time to time to keep them clean.  However you should at least wipe them down as described above once a year.

During your once-a-year thorough cleaning, you should also do some basic maintenance.  This is just as important as keeping your solar panels clean.

By taking a little bit of time and doing some easy things, you can prevent small problems from turning into bigger ones.  Over time this save you not only time but also a good deal of money.

Cleaning aside, your yearly solar panel maintenance should at least include the following:

1. Make sure that the levels of your solar array and load do not exceed the ratings.
2. Inspect for broken or burnt wires. Make sure that all the terminal connections are tight and that there aren’t any loose wires.
3. Check that there is no water collecting under your solar panel covers.
4. Check your charge controller.  Make sure that it is securely mounted, functioning properly, and that there is plenty of air flow to it.

Make sure that you keep your solar system clean and in good repair and you can be certain that it will perform to its maximum for a very long time.

You’ve constructed or purchased solar panels and now you’re ready to hook them up to the grid or your energy storage system.  You could just put them in a convenient place, but if you don’t give the placement of your solar panels much thought you could be throwing away free electricity.

Where and how you place your solar panels matters.  There is a science to this, which I’ll cover in more depth in a future post, but you actually don’t have to get that technical.  It’s easy to choose a place for your solar panels that will get the most out of them.

You probably realize this, but the most important thing in considering a place for your solar system is to make sure that that place is one that gets as much sun as possible.

The spot you choose for your solar system may be bright and sunny when you first choose it, but you need to make sure that it gets as little shade as possible throughout the day. Shade can have a large negative impact on solar systems, and that means more money out of your pocket to the electric company.  Ideally there should be no shade on your solar panels during any part of the day when the sun is up.

If you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, you’ll want to have your solar panels facing due south. Using a compass to find North and then setting up your panels facing directly opposite that is a good way to accurately do this. Of course if you’re in Southern Hemisphere you should just do the opposite.

You also do not want your panels to be mounted flat if possible, but rather at an angle.  The best possible angle for your panels to be mounted at is actually the latitude of where you’re installing your panels. Neat, right?

For example, if you’re located at 34 degrees latitude and the ground where you’re at is perfectly level, then you want the angle that the back of your solar panel makes between itself and the ground to be 34 degrees.

To make sure that you are mounting your panels at the proper angle for your latitude, all you need is a cheap line level and an old protractor.  The line level will get you an accurate horizontal, and you can then use the protractor and your eye to get really close to the angle your panels need to be mounted at.

Setting your panels up so that they face due south and are at the right angle will expose your panels to the most sunlight possible throughout the year, the effects of clouds aside.  If you’d like to know how to optimize for a certain time of year, I’ll be covering that in a future post.

Another thing to consider in your panel placement is a safe location.  By that I mean you want to choose a place where the panels can’t be easily damaged, either by accident or on purpose.

A lot of people put solar panels on their roofs because it is out of harm’s way and the panels get tons of light exposure with little to no shade issues.  Perhaps one of the greatest benefits of roof mounting your panels is that it makes use of space that you wouldn’t otherwise be using.

The drawbacks to roof mounting your panels is that it is more difficult to install and therefore more expensive. It can somewhat limit the angle and facing of the panels, and also makes it a little more difficult to service the panels if necessary.

Another mounting option is to use the ground.  This makes set-up and service a breeze and is definitely cheaper to do.  The drawbacks here are that you are more likely to have shade issues.  And of course this only really works if you’ve got the free space to mount your panels on.

All of the above tips are important, because they maximize the amount of sunlight that gets to your panels.  If you follow them you’ll end up getting more out of your solar panels and saving more on your electricity bill.

Want a wind turbine for your home? You’re in luck, because you have several options available – and because these days it’s easier than ever before to go off the grid and power your house entirely with clean energy.

Here are the 3 main options you have:

Option 1: Buy a Professionally-Produced Wind Turbine

The easiest option, if you don’t have much time, is to simply buy a wind turbine from a large company. Depending on your location and the wind speeds in your area, it might cost between $5,000 and $20,000 to completely power your house like this and eliminate your electricity bill.

If you have that kind of money to invest and don’t like to build things yourself, this is your best option – but be aware that it is most effective if you’re in the Midwest or near the ocean, where there is sufficient wind to make the investment worthwhile.

Advantages: Requires minimal time; no potential to mess up your wiring or electricity

Disadvantages: Very expensive; not worth it unless you have very strong winds in your area

Option 2: Acquire or Find a Broken or Not Fully Functional Wind Turbine

This is another option that most people completely overlook – rather than buying or building a wind turbine, why not just get a broken one from a neighbor or from a company looking to get rid of some of their windmills?

The only problem here is that it’s a little unreliable to do this, and you never know what you’re getting with a broken wind turbine – it might collapse in a week, leaving you without power. But it’s the cheapest option if you’re up for a challenge.

Advantages: Cheapest option; requires less time than building your own wind turbine

Disadvantages: Unreliable; may not last very long; may be difficult to find broken turbine depending on your location

Option 3: Build Your Own Wind Turbine

This is the alternative that you’re probably the most interested in – building your own wind turbine. If you like to get your hands dirty and have a few days to spare, you can power your home – or at least greatly reduce your electricity bill – for a few hundred dollars and several days worth of work.

The main problem is that not everyone is comfortable doing this, and you may not get good results if you live in an area without much wind.

Advantages: Relatively inexpensive; only requires a few days worth of work; can be “worth it” even if you don’t have strong winds in your area

Disadvantages: Requires some familiarity with cutting metal and assembling machines; may get unpredictable results if it’s your first time

So you’ve just followed my basic tutorial for building your own wind turbine, and you’re now powering your house with clean energy. Congratulations! Most people never even make it this far.

But if you want your DIY wind turbine to last well into the future, you’ll need to take good care of it and make sure it’s properly maintained – otherwise you’ll have to start all over again in a few months to a year when it breaks down due to the sun and environmental damage.

Here are the most important points to keep in mind for wind turbine maintenance:

1. Before you even set up your own DIY wind turbine, make sure that you coat the pipes you’re using for your blades and any parts you’re making out of plywood with UV inhibitor – these materials were never meant to be used outside, so you need to make sure the sun doesn’t wear them down. If you’ve forgotten to do this, simply apply the UV protector ASAP, and try to re-apply it at least a few times per year to protect against damage.
2. Always check the electrical parts of your wind turbine – the battery, DC motor, charge controller, dump load, and inverter – for rust, dust, and water leaks. If you keep these outside, you’ll want to clean them out, inspect them, and replace them if necessary at least 2-3 times per year. UV protector won’t help too much, but your main concern is not sun damage – it’s water damage and rust. You can also cover these with protective flexi-glass or other materials.
3. Maintain your blades – you want to make sure that the edges are still properly rounded, and that each of the 3 blades attached to your wind turbine is the same weight. You can inspect the edges for proper rounding yourself, and use sandpaper and a metal edge to shave off metal if necessary. To check for equal weighting, number the blades, and spin them around a few times to make sure the same blade does not always end up at the bottom – if it does, then you need to shave metal off the shaft connecting it to your hub.
4. Secure fastening: with a wind turbine, you absolutely need to make sure all the parts are securely fastened – but especially the blades, hub, and tail shaft. You can check for this every few months, and if the parts are growing loose, you can tighten them by re-drilling and re-aligning the holes. If the tail shaft becomes loose, you can use something as simple as bungee cord to fix it, tie a few loops to the tower, and make sure it stays in place.
5. General cleaning – there’s nothing too special here. Unlike with DIY solar panels, you’re not too concerned with dust because it won’t build up on blades that are constantly moving – instead, you should worry about rust buildups and possible water damage.

Those are the 5 main points you need to be concerned with when it comes to wind turbine maintenance – the most important part is to make sure your wind turbines are properly set up in the first place, because if you don’t use UV protector or forget to securely fasten everything in the beginning, you’re sure to encounter problems later on.

If you’re getting interested in using wind turbines to power your home, you might be wondering how electricity is actually generated from the wind.

It’s actually quite straightforward, and only a little more complicated compared to how solar power works.

At a basic level, a wind turbine generates electricity by transferring wind energy into kinetic energy in your blades – this kinetic energy then rotates magnets around a conductor, which generates electricity.

Let’s go through it step-by-step:

Wind: The wind itself is moving at least several miles per hour, which means it’s carrying energy.

Rotor Blades: When the wind hits your blades, it causes them to rotate and it therefore turns into kinetic energy stored in the blades as they move.

Shaft/Tower: When the blades rotate, they cause the tower that you have used to mount everything on to rotate, which transfers mechanical energy into your generator – the DC power motor if you’ve followed my recommendations for building your own wind turbine.

Generator: Inside the generator are sets of magnets located around a conductor in the center. The rotation of your tower causes these magnets to also rotate around the conductor, which means that the magnetic field around the conductor is constantly changing – and that generates electricity.

If you’re wondering why a rotating magnetic field generates electricity, you should review Faraday’s Law on Wikipedia, which states that an electric current can produce a magnetic field and vice versa since the two are intimately linked.

So, how much electricity can you generate from your own wind turbine?

It’s greatly dependent on the materials you use, how well your blades are constructed, and, of course, the average wind speeds near your home.

On average, if you have a wind turbine with 3 blades about 6 feet long and wind speeds of around 20 mph on average, your wind turbine might produce anywhere from 300 to 500 Watts of power.

That alone will significantly cut your electric bill – but if you want to completely eliminate it, you’ll probably need at least 5-6 wind turbines so you can generate several kilowatts of power.

Ok, so you’ve now gathered up all the parts you’ll need for your wind turbine, you’ve figured out your wind turbine costs, and you’ve decided to finally go off the grid and make your own windmill – now, how do you assemble everything?

This is actually a very lengthy and complicated question to answer, but for now I’ll give you the basics – there are a lot of nuances here that I’m skipping over, but those will be covered in future tutorials.

Step 1: Acquire or buy all the parts on eBay or from your local hardware store – DC power motor, metal sheets, PVC pipe, hub, tower, deep-cycle battery, charge controller, dump load, AC inverter, and enough nuts and bolts to connect three blades to your tower.

Step 2: Cut your PVC pipe into a 3 ft. length, and then cut the pipe into quarters – 3 of these will be blades, and one is a spare. You then need to shape these so that one side narrows into a 2” tip. The blades themselves should be about 6 feet in length – you can go smaller, but try to make each one at least 4 feet or they will not spin easily.

Step 3: Drill holes on the “non-narrow” side of your blade so that their positions match up with your hub.

Step 4: Weld or bolt a coupling to the center of your hub, and then attach the 3 blades to the hub, and the hub to the motor shaft – small steel bars about a foot long and 2” wide work best for this.

Step 5: Balance the blades and hub by numbering the blades and spinning them to make sure that the same one does not land at the bottom each time – if it does, then you need to shave some metal off your connecting steel bars.

Step 6: Slide the DC motor shaft into the hole in the middle of your hub (or drill it if it’s not there yet) – make sure the hub is secure.

Step 7: Measure the height of your tail shaft and drill a hole through the top (smaller) part of your tower, right above where the top of the tail shaft would go.

Step 8: Now cut the actual tail shaft from your metal, and make it about 3 to 4 feet long – and fix it to the tower with a flat bracket.

Step 9: Now, make sure your hub and the blades are attached to your tower, and wire the remaining parts together – you should connect the DC motor to the charge controller, then connect that to the battery and the battery to the AC inverter, which goes into your utility box. The gauge of wire you’ll need is depends on the materials you used – you should call an electrician to make sure you’re using the right one if you’re not confident.

As I said, this just scratches the surface in terms of DIY wind turbines – but now you should at least have a basic idea of how to make a simple turbine to power your home and meet all your energy needs.

This type of wind turbine should produce at least 300 – 500 Watts of power, assuming your average wind speed is at least 10-20mph or higher.

How much does a wind turbine cost? It’s an important question, but one that is rarely, if ever, addressed by existing guides and websites.

Some people claim that you can make your own wind turbine with as little as $50, but this is almost impossible unless you have a lot of spare parts on hand in your garage.

Just to review, here are the parts you’ll need to construct your own wind turbine:

• DC Power Motor
• Sheets of metal (to assemble the body and tail)
• ABS or PVC pipe (to construct your wind turbine blades)
• Hub (to connect your blades to the motor)
• Tower (to hold up your blades)
• Deep-Cycle Battery (to store your energy)
• Charge Controller (to prevent the battery from overloading)
• Dump Load (to send extra power to)
• AC Inverter (if you need to use AC power)
• Nuts and Bolts (for connecting the blades to the hub and other pieces)
• Tools: socket set, screwdrivers, a grinder, a jigsaw, and sandpaper

Now let’s look at what each of these will cost you – either from your hardware store, or online via eBay or other sites.

DC Power Motor – You can find an Ametek 30-40 vdc generator online on eBay for around $30-$50 – this is my recommended motor, especially if your wind speed is not great.

Sheets of Metal – You can find these online or at your hardware store for about $5.

ABC or PVC pipe – Again, you can find pipe between 8” and 12” in diameter online for around $10.

Hub – You can either buy this at your hardware store for around $10, or make it yourself out of a circular piece of metal alloy.

Tower – You can find old satellite TV towers or simple steel pipe that’s about 2-3” thick and 8-12 feet tall online for around $10 – going to your local hardware store or asking neighbors also work.

Deep-Cycle Battery – This should be free if you go to your local golf club or a fork lift distributor and ask for old batteries – otherwise you could find a deep-cycle battery online for around $10.

Charge Controller – You can find one on eBay for about $25.

Dump Load – This should be free because you can just use a simple appliance you already have, like a water heater or backup battery pack.

AC Inverter – If you don’t already have one, you can get one for $50 (300 Watts) to $75 (1500 Watts) online.

Nuts and Bolts / Tools – Allot about $10 for these if you don’t already have your own tools and some nuts and bolts – your best bet is your local hardware store.

Adding all these parts up, we see that the cost may range from $160 to $205 – and if you already have certain parts like the inverter or motor, you could build your own wind turbine for only $100.

Are you thinking about finally going green and powering your house completely with wind power? If so, you’re not alone – more people than ever before are looking to wind power to meet their energy needs and go off the grid.

You have a couple options if you want to use wind power to eliminate your electric bill: the easiest and least time-consuming is to simply buy an existing wind turbine (called a “prefabricated wind turbine”).

A wind turbine with enough output to fully power your house can cost anywhere from $5,000 to $20,000 – for most households, that means that your investment will pay for itself within 10-15 years, assuming average utility bill expenses.

That’s an “ok” investment, but if you really want to see a high return on your money and don’t mind getting your hands dirty, the best option with personal wind power is to build your own wind turbine.

If you do it correctly, you can achieve the same results as a manufactured wind turbine, all for much less than $5,000 – in some cases, it may only cost you $200.

Here’s what you’ll need to make your own wind turbine and start using personal wind power to meet all your energy needs:

• DC Power Motor
• Sheets of metal (to assemble the body and tail)
• ABS or PVC pipe (to construct your wind turbine blades)
• Hub (to connect your blades to the motor)
• Tower (to hold up your blades)
• Deep-Cycle Battery (to store your energy)
• Charge Controller (to prevent the battery from overloading)
• Dump load (to send extra power to)
• AC Inverter (if you need to use AC power)
• Nuts and bolts (for connecting the blades to the hub and other pieces)
• Tools: socket set, screwdrivers, a grinder, a jigsaw, and sandpaper

As you can see, building your own wind turbine is a bit more complicated than creating your own solar panels – it is a more complex device, so more mechanical know-how and assembly are required.

The good news is that even a DIY wind turbine can produce far more power than a solar panel – properly constructed and with sufficient wind, your own windmill might produce anywhere from 300 – 500 Watts of power. So you won’t need too many of them to completely power your house, or at least significantly cut your electric bill!

However, be careful before making your own wind turbines – unless you have enough wind in your area, they will be completely useless! As a general rule of thumb, you want the average wind speed near your house to be at least 10 mph or a wind turbine won’t do much good. Mountains, plains, and anything near the ocean are therefore much better locations for a wind turbine than lower elevations with a lot of tree cover.

If you really don’t have enough wind to properly use personal wind power, then you may want to consider creating solar panels instead to go off the grid!

Most existing guides and resources make the process of solar panel construction far more complicated than it needs to be.

The truth is, building your own solar panels doesn’t have to be hard – it’s only hard if you start it without having a clear idea of what you need to do and how to get there.

I cover this in more detail in my article on how to create solar panels, but here’s a quick overview of the process and just how easy it really is:

1. First, decide if you actually want to build your own solar panel at all – you can often get them for free from neighbors, from the hardware store, or even from highway patrol. So don’t assume that you need to even construct your own solar panel in the first place!
2. If you do want to go ahead with the solar panel construction, here’s what you need to get started:

First, you might be tempted to completely eliminate your electric bill with your own DIY solar panels, but I would actually recommend against doing this for your first project.

It’s best to start small and take it from there – try building a simple 40 or 50-cell solar panel first, see how that goes, and then adapt accordingly.

Here’s how you can set up your first solar panel “experiment”:

First, gather the necessary parts – maybe 40 or 50 solar cells off eBay, some plywood (cut to the necessary length and width), as well as tabbing wire, solder, and a rosin flux pen.

Then, arrange the solar cells in series, face-down, and drop a small amount of solder onto each of these tabs.

Then, wire all these cells together by attaching wire from the back of one cell to the front of another cell, and so on until everything is connected.

Next, connect each individual row together in parallel, and then fix the cells to your plywood using silicone.

Finally, drill some holes at the bottom of the plywood for positive and negative wiring from your solar cells – and then connect these to your inverter before connecting them to the power box on your house.

If you’re uncomfortable with this last step, you can always get an electrician or the power company itself to help you out – it can be tricky to get everything perfect on your first try, and if you’d rather not risk it, going to the “experts” is always a viable option.

This is a very quick overview, but you get the basic idea just from this article – the most tedious part of this whole process is wiring the solar cells together, but you’ll get better at it with time and practice.