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The GetYourReviews staff is here to separate the scams from the quality products for sale online. Zach Angelo personally bought and used the Green DIY Energy Guide. Read his full Green DIY Energy review below.

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1/3/11 Green DIY Energy Guide Review

Product: Green DIY Energy Guide
Theme: How to build solar panels for the home, while spending less than $200
Cost: $49 during current promotion, normally $197
Rating:

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Earth4Energy is a guide on how to build homemade power systems, including a DIY solar power system, a DIY wind power system, and making your own bio diesel. This in depth Earth4Energy Review takes you through the membership system showing you the products you get when you sign up. For more info click: Earth4Energy.

Solar Cells

Either of these types of cells is fine for the construction of solar panels, but if you want to get the most power from a given amount of space, use monocrystalline cells.

Both poly- and monocrystalline cells come in several shapes and many sizes. The basic cell shapes are round, square, pseudo-square and rectangle. Cells can be cut to just about any size needed by the manufacturer.

New Homemade solar cells vs. old-style Homemade solar cells

The structure of photovoltaic cells has changed over time. They are becoming thinner, which makes them less expensive to make since the manufacturer can get more cells from a given amount of silicon and other active materials in the ingot, ribbon, or deposition process. The cells are now easier and less costly to manufacture, but they are much more fragile and delicate than the older cells, and require much more care in handling and soldering.

Solar Cells

The electrode contacts are also becoming thinner. The older cells, usually round in shape, have heavy solder contacts on the front side of the cells, and the backs are usually totally covered with solder. Cells made today have just thin lines or spots of solder that are usually vapor deposited or silk screened onto the cell.

Solar cell output

Solar cells all produce about 0.5 volts, more or less, no matter how large they are. However, the size of the cell does affect the current output. The larger the surface area of the cell, the more current it will produce. A 2″ square cell will produce less current than a cell that is 4″ square, all other parameters being equal. This is important to consider when you design panels for a specific purpose. If you need a lot of battery charging power (amps), your panels should have high current output cells. If your power needs are minimal and/or you live in a fairly sunny climate, you can do well with lower current cells.

Solar Cells

Cells with high current output are generally more desirable; but, the higher the current output, the more they will cost. High current cells will recharge batteries faster in less than perfect solar power conditions, such as in a climate prone to cloud cover, or during winter months when the sun is low on the horizon and less light is available daily. So, seasonal and local climate conditions should be considered when selecting the cells to use for building a panel.

Another very important consideration is how much energy will be drawn

from the batteries on a daily basis, and thus how much the batteries are being drained, and how much time will be required to recharge them each day.

Watt rating of solar cells

When looking for solar cells, notice that a voltage rating and a current rating (amperage) is given. These figures are called open circuit voltage and short circuit current ratings. If you multiply the current by the voltage you will get the watt power rating of the cell.

For instance, a cell with a voltage rating of 0.5 volts and a current rating of 4 amps is rated as a 2 watt cell.

Generally cells range from milliamps on up to 6 amps output. For most practical projects a 1 to 4 amp cell will suffice. Two to three amp cells are more commonly used and are the most readily available at a decent price.

Wind-electric systems may be the most captivating of the three main renewable electricity technologies. Most of us just love to watch a wind turbine spin. But these  systems are also the most prone to problems, and can be more complicated and expensive to install.

To get you started down the right road in using wind energy, this article will outline the basic system components and types. It will help you understand the systems better, so you will make better choices if you decide that wind energy is right for you.

Off-Grid Wind-Electric System

Off-grid wind-electric systems are battery based. People generally choose these systems because their home or other energy use is not connected to the grid, and connection would be expensive. Others prefer the independence of offgrid systems, or live where utilities and governments make it difficult to tie a renewable energy system to the grid.Off-grid systems are limited in capacity by the size of the generating sources (wind turbine, solar-electric array, fuelfired generator, etc.), the resources available, and the battery bank size. Off-grid homeowners have to learn to live within the limitations of their system capacity.

Wind Generator AKA: wind genny, wind turbine

The wind generator is what actually generates electricity in the system. Most modern wind generators are upwind designs (blades are on the side of the tower that faces into the wind), and couple permanent magnet alternators directly to the rotor (blades).

Three-bladed wind generators are most common, providing a good compromise between efficiency and rotor balance.Small wind turbines protect themselves from high winds (governing) by tilting the rotor up or to the side, or by changing the pitch of the blades.

Electricity is transmitted down the tower on wires, most often as three-phase wild alternating current (AC).It’s called “wild” because the voltage and frequency vary with the rotational speed of the wind turbine. The output is then rectified to direct current (DC) to charge batteries or to be inverted for grid connection.

Tower

A wind generator tower is very often more expensive than  the turbine. The tower puts the turbine up in the “fuel”— the smooth strong winds that give the most energy. Wind  turbines should be sited at least 30 feet (9 m) higher than  anything within 500 feet (152 m).

Three common types of towers are tilt-up, fixed-guyed,  and freestanding. Towers must be specifically engineered  for the lateral thrust and weight of the turbine, and should  be adequately grounded to protect your equipment against  lightning damage. See my article “Wind Generator Tower Basics” in HP105 for information about choosing a tower.

Brake  AKA: emergency

Shut down mechanism Most wind turbines have some means of stopping the turbine for repairs, in an emergency, for routine maintenance, or when the energy is not needed. Many turbines have “dynamic braking,” which simply shorts out the three electrical phases and acts as a disconnect.

Others have mechanical braking, either via a disc or drum brake, activated by a small winch at the base of the tower. Still others have mechanical furling, which swings the rotor out of the wind. Mechanical braking is usually more effective and reliable than dynamic braking.

Charge Controller AKA: controller, regulator

A wind-electric charge controller’s primary function is to protect your battery bank from overcharging. It does this by monitoring the battery bank—when the bank is fully charged, the controller sends energy from the battery bank to a dump (diversion) load.

Many wind-electric charge controllers are built into the same box as the rectifiers (AC-to-DC converters). Overcurrent protection is needed between the battery and controller dump load. In batteryless grid-tie systems, there is no controller in normal operation, since the inverter is selling whatever energy the turbine is generating. But there will be some control function in the case of grid failure, and there may be electronics before the inverter to regulate the input voltage.