DIY

DIY Alternative Energy, Build Your Own Solar Power

- Adam Clare

Ever wanted to build your own energy network? Well, now you can!
This guy made his own solar power unit.

So what is a solar panel anyway? It is basically a box that holds an array of solar cells. Solar cells are the things that do the actual work of turning sunlight into electricity. However, it takes a lot of cells to make a meaningful amount of power, and they are very fragile, so the individual cells are assembled into panels. The panels hold enough cells to make a useful amount of power and protect the cells from the elements. It doesn’t sound too complicated. I was convinced I could do it myself.

I started out the way I start every project, by Googling for information on home-built solar panels. I was shocked at how few I found. The fact that very few people were building their own panels led me to think it must be harder to do than I thought. The project got shelved for a while, but I never stopped thinking about it.

Living Like a Hobbit

- Adam Clare

Simon Dale built his house with little knowledge of how to actually build a house because he thinks that his house is closer to nature. It is.

The house was built with maximum regard for the environment and by reciprocation gives us a unique opportunity to live close to nature. Being your own (have a go) architect is a lot of fun and allows you to create and enjoy something which is part of yourself and the land rather than, at worst, a mass produced box designed for maximum profit and convenience of the construction industry. Building from natural materials does away with producers profits and the cocktail of carcinogenic poisons that fill most modern buildings.

Solar Power for a Month

- Adam Clare

Solar roof
A writer for a tech magazine converted his house to solar last month and he has written about his project and his amazingly low power bill. Here’s the highlights from converting his home to solar:

-The entire array consists of 27 panels. Each panel has a peak rating of 225W (nominal rating 207W). Nine panels face south, 18 face west. Total peak output of the array at the panel is 6.1KW.

-It’s summer here in California, so it’s the peak season for solar power generation.

-On the other hand, you may have read about all the fires that have been burning in Northern California. I’ve had to go up about once a week to rinse the ash off the panels.

-I have a minor tree problem. After about 7:30PM, a large tree several hundred yards away effectively blocks the sun. Since it’s late in the day, it’s well past the peak generating time, but it’s still worth noting.

Additionally, I’ve received my first electric bill since the installation, although it’s only for 19 days, not the usual 29 or 30.

So what was my electricity bill for 19 days?

$11.34

Grow Your Own Luffa

- Adam Clare 1 Comment

Tired of not having your own personalized luffa?

Did you know that you can grow your own luffa in your backyard? Well you can. Groovy Green has not one but two posts on how to grow your own luffa.

“Many people are surprised when they find out I grow my own Luffa sponges. “Don’t those come from the sea?”, is the standard question to which I respond that the Luffa is a vegetable you can grow in your very own garden.”

Build Your Own Solar iPod Charger

- Adam Clare 4 Comments

For those of you with iPods, you may want to ensure that you never have to worry about the battery dying. This is a neat use of small scale solar power, it’s a homemade solar panel that attached to a backpack using velcro that connects to an iPod.

The instructions are easy to follow, and one step is sipping on some coffee (which is hopefully fair trade and organic). If I had an iPod I would try making this, not just for cheap power, but for solar style.

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