So you want to make your own solar panels, save money on your electricity bill and also do your part in helping the Earth. There are literally hundreds of diy solar panel and wind turbine guides that are out there. I have heard the hype about many of these diy solar panel guides, and picked the best one out of the bunch that worked the best for me, and that one was the Earth4Energy manual, which was featured in major magazines such as Popular Mechanics and Popular Science, so you know that they are legit.

Not only do they give you guides, and solar panel construction plans, they actually give you a video series that SHOWS you exactly what you need to do to be able to make your own solar panels. The videos are by the far the most beneficial part of the whole deal to me as I am not one to take written instructions without pictures too well and become successful with it.

I managed to build a couple of solar panels for my vacation home for just a couple hundred dollars in parts, I just had to order some solar panels through eBay and I was ready to begin constructing and installing the solar panels on the roof, and I plan on building many more.

Another reason why I liked the Earth4Energy manual is that they give you lots of bonuses, such as wiring diagrams, tax rebate sheets, solar calculators so that you can determine how many solar panels and battery banks you will need to completely go off the grid.

The customer support for them is outstanding too, although you have to contact them through email, they are always very prompt in answering your questions.

They also have a guide that will teach you how to build your own wind turbines, and just recently added a 15 minute video that will show you step by step on how to properly construct a wind turbine.

They keep the price extremely low for the amount of information that is given to you, for only $49.97 I think that is a great deal for over 2 hours of solar panel video instruction, bonus guides, wiring grids, a solar panel calculator, wind turbine plans and instructional video, along with a bunch of other great information that is going to help you cut energy costs by 50% or more.

Today, everyone is talking about what we can do to make our lives greener, especially when it comes to making a home green. It is important that we stop relying on non-reusable fossil fuels to produce the electricity that we need to power all the gadgets that have become necessary to our modern lifestyle. As long as we can find a suitable electricity alternative, we won’t have to give up our conveniences. A great option for a renewable source of electrical power is wind power. All over the world the wind keeps on blowing. Man has actually been harnessing wind power for centuries. Today, we need take old technology and change it to fit modern needs. That is we need to ask: how do wind turbines work?

If you hear the word windmill, you probably immediately think of an old Dutch structure surrounded by a field of tulips. These ancient windmills were used to perform a specific task, such as grinding flour or turning a lathe. With these models, the wind turned the blades, which were attached to a crankshaft.

The crankshaft then turned the pole that did the grinding or whatever task was needed. Today, the crankshaft is attached to an electrical generator. The power of the wind moves the parts of the generator and produces electricity. This electricity is then stored in batteries or sent off along power lines to a municipal grid.

Non-technical people are often told to think of the workings of a wind turbine like the workings of an electric fan. In an electric fan, there is a small motor at the base of the fan that powers the mechanism that turns the blades. It is exactly the opposite for a wind turbine. In this case the wind is causing the motive power to turn the blades and the motor becomes a receptacle for the power of the wind. The motor is then called a generator.

If you want to get a little bit more technical about the inner workings of a wind turbine, you can start out by picturing three blades that are attached on a single rotor. At the opposite end of the rotor you will find a gear box, a toothed circle that looks like the gears inside your watch.

The teeth of the gear box are interlocked with the teeth inside the generator so that little power is lost between the spinning of the blades and the spinning of the generator’s motor.

Today’s wind turbines are more sophisticated pieces of equipment. They will have a yaw drive and a yaw motor that are either controlled remotely or automatically in order to change the direction of the blades so that they are directly downwind of the coming gusts.

A wine vane can also accomplish that task moving the wind turbine. Instead of managing tilt, it manages the actual direction of the turbine. This can also be accomplished remotely on large, industrial turbines. Now that you have a basic overview of how wind turbines work, you can use your knowledge to petition your lawmakers for a change.

Living off the grid is a wonderful thing. It means that you are both saving money as well as helping the environment. There are a couple of things that you can do to get off the municipal grid and start producing your own power. First of all, you can build solar panels. You can also hook up an exercise bike and make a man-powered generator. Finally, you can make your own wind turbines. With all of the great diy guides that are out there these days, making your own wind turbines is a great option for people all around the country. There is always at least a little wind, whereas much of the country has cloudy days throughout the year, and especially during the winter.

When you start to build your own wind turbine, you will find that there are a lot of different design options available. However, regardless of the end design, you will essentially have five different components to your turbine. You are going to need blades, a generator, a mount, a tower, and other electrical components such as batteries.

For starters, you need to find a generator that will spin at a reasonable speed and produce about twelve volts of electricity at a steady pace. Getting something that has too many RPMs can blow out your storage batteries in the long run. A motor that will run at three hundred RPMs and thirty volts is a good option. When used as a generator, a motor will run at half its rated voltage.

Next you should look for your wind turbine blades. You can actually carve them out of the piece of wood if you so desire. That way you can make the perfect aerodynamic shape. However, this takes a lot of time, especially if you don’t have a lot of experience carving. Wooden blades also need to be occasionally replaced. That is why using PVC to make your blades is so much simpler and easier. You can make four blades from a single six inch pipe.

Your wind turbine mount starts out with a circular piece on which all of the blades can be attached. Then you should connect the circular piece to the motor so that the spinning of the blades will power the generator.

You can make the second half of this mount out of wood. You might even want to extend it out and put a fin on the back so that the blades will always be pushed into the direction of the oncoming wind.

The tower is what gets your mount off the ground and into the wind. It should be high, but only as high as you can safely build and maintain. A long metal pole works well for this, especially if you can sink it into the ground like a flag pole. Otherwise you might want to consider some type of radio tower type construction. At the top of the tower, make sure the mount can rotate freely.

The last step to make your own wind turbines is to connect the generator to the power supply. Since electricity is a dangerous substance to work with, the workings of the wiring are beyond the scope of this article.