Do it Yourself Renewable Energy Solutions.

When you look for a guide on how to make something, whether it be plans for a garden shed, or how to build solar panels, you want to make sure that you have everything you need to take the project from concept, to finished product. There is nothing more annoying than trying to build something with incomplete plans or diagrams. With this product, you will not have that problem. Earth4Energy not only offers complete and up to date information, but also provides you with lots of appreciated extras as well.

Now before you get into any project like this you are going to need to get your required parts together and the Earth4Energy site simplifies this process for you by providing you with links where you can find the necessary components such as the solar cells, tabbing wire, generators, etc that you will of course need before you can begin your project. Now you can buy these components at any number of places, but the creators of Earth4Energy have chosen to highlight eBay as the best place to find the parts you need, and we are inclined to agree because you can save some money as opposed to buying from a distributor.

The solar panel portion of this guide is 46 pages and starts with a basic introduction to solar power, then delves into the components and actual construction techniques. The video series was good, however not quite as detailed as we found in GreenDIYEnergy. Videos are important and if you are even the least bit technologically challenged, you will find them extremely useful in helping you to understand how all of this goes together.

What you see on the left is a screen shot of one of the E4E videos. These videos are of professional quality and cover every aspect of putting a solar panel together from beginning to end.

Let me just say this again, when you are attempting to construct a solar panel for the first time, you will really appreciate having these videos available to you. 

We decided to try and build a solar panel using only the instructions in the guide. We chose to connect the solar cells together first and make the frame last, however some might complete that step of the process first. It really doesn't matter. We read the instructions, watched the videos and had no trouble getting everything mated together to create a working panel which we tested in the sun producing 60w.

The finished project.

Another nice feature of the Earth4Energy site is the solar calculator which can be used to help you determine how many solar panels you will need for your system and what size battery bank you will need. Since we were just constructing a solar panel to test the accuracy and completeness of the material, we really did not utilize this feature but we have been told it is very useful.

We also took a look at the guide on how to make a homemade wind generator and found it to be every bit as comprehensive as the solar material. Now we have to say that building a wind generator is definitely more an involved project due to the parts you will need to acquire and the complexity of it all, but again, with the provided materials we were able to understand how to construct a working wind generator, although we have decided to make that a project for another day.

On the left you see a screen shot of one of the videos provided from the E4E site showing the final stages of assembly for a wind powered generator. All of the materials that you will need for the wind generator project are available at your local home center, or online.

Another reason that we chose Earth4Energy as the best overall product was for the bonuses they offer. Aside from the guides showing you how to make a solar panel, and how to make a wind generator, they offer more bonus materials than any other site. Some of these are as follows;

In summary, we just don't feel that you can go wrong with this guide. It was definitely written with the average consumer in mind which means that you don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand the text, videos and diagrams.  If you have a basic knowledge of electrical systems and have the ability to construct simple frames or structures for the wind turbines, then this guide gives you all the information you need to get that solar or wind project up and running in no time at all.

It's also worth mentioning that these solar panels can be built for varying applications such as to charge batteries, or providing power for recreational vehicles.

You can also have the entire guide sent to you on a CD if you prefer to keep a permanent hard copy of the product on disc.

Earth4Energy is one of the most popular alternative energy guides on the market, and for good reason we suspect. Overall, we found the guide to be an excellent resource which covered every detail that we needed to complete our project.  Emails requesting additional information were returned in an acceptable amount of time.

Overall a great product and one of the most popular alternative energy guides on the market.

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