Solar Power Can You do it Yourself?

Interesting strides are made all the time in solar power. Just the thought of getting free power is enough to make us at least look into it.

Unfortunately the price tag is enough to put people off of the thought.

We have learned through the years not to dismiss ideas out of hand but to think outside the box.

With that in mind we figured if we got help with heating and cooling only that would be a big chunk of our bills. So we looked into passive heating and passive cooling.

Our old houses unfortunately were not built with the passive heating and cooling principals in mind. We again went back to the drawing board.

In our reading and searching of the internet we found the best possible resource on the subject. You know the kind of web site we are talking about when you get on it you think "Wow I found a gold mine!"

We found do-it-yourself projects for solar heating that we could do ourselves. We are not mechanically inclined so chances are if we did it you probably can also.

We knew nothing when we started except the general concept of solar power. We had no idea there were so many ways to get the sun to act on our behalf. After we read most of the builditsolar.com web site we knew more than we ever thought possible.

For example:

We have driven past this big two story house for years. On the south side are these two huge (two story size) solar panels. One day as we drove past we realized they don't have solar panels to make electricity like we always assumed. Those panels are big solar heaters!

Builditsolar.com has sections on electricity, cooking, lighting, and our favorite frugal solar! Also sections on bio fuels and solar vehicles.

The site is like a directory of projects and web sites of people who have done these things. The best way to learn is when another person does it before you and tells you how! Especially when the other person is just like you and me.

There is a great section on conservation. This is not like the conservation you learned in school, that keeps being repeated to everyone when the subject is brought up. Many new interesting ways to save on your energy and water. It has saved us money.

We have built our own solar heat collectors and put up window coverings that have been losing our heating, and cooling dollars like there was a big hole in our wall! So its worth it if you are interested in solar power!

Other things you can find:

How to build your own mini solar power car

Build own water heating solar panel

Build own solar panel

How do I build a solar pool heater for swimming

Build your own passive solar greenhouse

Build solar oven

Build heater solar

Build It Solar

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