Filed Under : 
May.30,2010Approved by:
Linda Maze, a Wedding photography Gainesville FL in Gainesville Florida
GreenDIYEnergy
GreenDIYEnergy is the best and most complete DIY solar guide. They include ebooks, videos and spreadsheets – 17 different components in all. What really separates GreenDIYEnergy from the rest of the pack is the quality of it’s videos.
GreenDIY Energy includes 6 videos which cover the entire build. The videos are high quality 852×480 mp4 videos. The videos are higher quality and are a lot bigger than the videos included in the other guides. The videos go all the way from start to finish, step-by-step and look terrific. The large size and high resolution let you see everything.
The videos start with what tools and parts you’ll need for the solar panels. Next, acquiring and soldering the solar cells together is shown. The next step is building the actual container and attaching the solar cells in the container. Up next is final wiring and finishing work. Finally the solar panel is connected to a volt meter and you can see it actually producing electricity.
GreenDIYEnergy also includes ebooks on topics like DIY solar power, solar electrical, solar installation and solar tax credits. The ebooks are very comprehensive, with over 200 total pages. They also include spreadsheets with calculators for how much electricity your appliances consume, solar panel sizing, battery sizing, charge controller sizing and power inverter sizing.
GreenDIYEnergy is the best and most comprehensive DIY solar guide I have seen, after buying and reviewing quite a few DIY solar guides in preparation for building a solar panel for my electric bike. For a more comprehensive review, visit GreenDIYEnergy.
Homemade Energy
Another very good DIY solar guide is Homemade Energy. It includes more videos than any other guide. Also included are ebooks, though GreenDIYEnergy includes more, and similar spreadsheets.
Homemade Energy includes more videos than any other DIY solar guide. They show the whole build step-by-step in plenty of detail. Tools and parts, soldering the cells together, building the container, attaching the cells, wiring and finishing. Everything from what parts and tools you need to wiring the solar cells together to constructing the panel container to final wiring is covered. The videos are flash videos and aren’t quite as big and high quality as GreenDIYEnergy, but they are still quite good.
The ebook included with Homemade Energy is pretty comprehensive and covers all facets of solar panel construction. My suggestion would be to watch the videos all the way through and then use the ebook as a reference. It also includes a spreadsheet with sizing calculators that is very similar to the one included with GreenDIYEnergy.
I would say GreenDIYEnergy is a little better than Homemade Energy mainly because of the higher quality video and more ebooks. Homemade Energy provides a good quality product, though, and you do get your money’s worth.
For my complete review, check out Homemade Energy.
Earth4Energy
I put Earth4Energy in 3rd place. The ebooks, videos and spreadsheets they include aren’t quite as good as the packages above. The solar material is pretty good, though in my opinion not as good as the solar guides above, however Earth4Energy is the only guide that includes video for building a wind generator.
The parts of the project that are most likely to cause problems are covered with videos, but the videos are not comprehensive. Where GreenDIYEnergy and Homemade Energy include video showing the entire build step-by-step from start to finish, Earth4Energy relies on the ebook for much of the build and includes video for just the most challenging sections.
The Earth4Energy ebook is also pretty good, but not as comprehensive as as the other two guides. Earth4Energy provides calculators online for battery sizing, appliance energy consumption and solar panel output.
So, can Earth4Energy help the average person to build a solar panel? I think most people will be able to build a solar panel with Earth4Energy, but the other two guides include more video, which is the most important part of the package in my opinion. Earth4Energy also includes video for a DIY wind generator and is the only guide to do so. While Earth4Energy will allow you to build a solar panel, the other guides above will provide more for your money.
To read more, visitEarth4Energy Review.
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