Yes, There Really Are DIY Solar Panels and Windmills
Most reasonable people realize that commercially-available solar panels, or windmills, are the only viable option for 99.998% of the situations we encounter. After all, we don’t build our own dishwashers or automobiles, although it’s absolutely possible to do so.
Of course, there’s room for people who might build their own solar or wind equipment. Those people are darned rare. What’s not rare are the proliferating scammers out there (masquerading as informative solar or wind money savers) who sell completely worthless “build your own solar panels” or “windmills” ebooks.
Below is a freely-available alternative, if you’re really the type who likes to get down and dirty with very elaborate science projects. You also have to have the tools, workshop, talent, drive and budget to follow through to the bitter end on these projects. And honestly, you won’t be displacing that much real electricity for your household, unless you have several free months or years to throw away.
Make Magazine is, really, the real thing. Nowhere near a scam, on the complete up-and-up, posting free and useful information for every last person with an internet connection. Nothing misleading whatsoever, no credit card needed: Authentic people using their real names, freely sharing their full biographies that you can easily investigate with a quick, simple Google search. Here’s the link to their REAL WORLD windmill project for hardcore electrical hardware enthusiasts: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/06/how-to_single_rotor_wind_turbine.html
You’ll find links to other windmill and solar panel projects on their site as well. These highly-involved projects are a labor of love for people who are passionate about deconstructing the inner workings of complex technology. Definitely NOT for casual backyard frugalistas who want to save a few hundred or thousand dollars instead of buying a professionally-manufactured wind turbine; or weatherproof, warranted solar panels.
If you don’t already have the tools, you’ll be spending a lot more than $1000. These people are hardcore Do-It-Yourselfers, who attend trade shows like Maker’s Faire to share difficult insider information with each other. Have you seen “Mythbusters” on Discovery Channel? THOSE are the class of people who would want to build this—NOT your average garage workshop tinkerer.
IF you pay attention to internet ads, you’ll see a rising multitude of Earth4Energy* scammers posting “Google Adwords” inticements on just about every website after you type keywords like “solar” or “solar panels” or “wind” or “wind power”, etc. They appear to be real because they do use real solar or wind information as a cloak to draw in their prey, but the giveaway is “build your own solar panels” or “windmills”. Just buy their PDF in a box first.
Go ahead and click on those ads every time you see them, then move right along to something else (notice the annoying popups and infomercial videos just long enough to get disgusted). Every single click on their ads makes them pay Google (”pay per click”, or PPC, an SEO or “Search Engine Optimization” term) and distorts their “bounce rate”, another SEO term meaning how long a person stays to look at a website after clicking an ad.
Make scammers pay for running their scams. Each click will cost them around $1-3. The more that REAL SOLAR AND WIND PEOPLE call them on their scam, and make it too expensive to continue; the sooner it’ll dwindle away with other snake oil salepeople we all despise. Personally, yesterday, I was inspired to write Google’s Renewable Energy czar, Bill Weihl—AND the CEO of Clickbank/Keynetics, Brad Wiskirchen, to tell them to put a stop to fraudulent practices that reflect poorly on their company’s ethics.
I’ll continue to find other ways to stop confusing people who come to the internet to learn something, and get taken for a ride instead. Thank you to anyone who helps rectify this. And email me if you want the email contact info for the Google/Keynetics folks.
Sincerely,
Ken
*FYI: The ultimate party responsible for Earth4Energy ripoffs is named “Drew” at Swerd Publishing Pty. Ltd., 7 Godwin St, Bulimba Australia, www.ezcbcash.com. Email me at ken at gooddaysolar dot com, and I’ll forward you “Drew’s” PDF handbook that lays out his scam in detail.
Any Aussie “solar” people out there should be doubly insulted by this swindle, eh mate?