Has anybody had success with DIY solar/wind systems?

I've checked out the very appealing sales copy video at one company that offers videos and manuals on how to build your own solar panels and wind system for a couple hundred dollars for all you can eat energy for a 4 bedroom house. It is supposed to include every instruction from set up to placement and require only the knowledge of how to use a screw driver and a weekend's worth of time. It is selling for $50. www.power4home.com

The one misleading thing in the sales video was that you are simultaneously hooked up to the grid, but you have power when the grid goes down. Not true from what I've been told by a solar company.

Being off the grid, and doing it cheaply is what I'm looking for.

Does anyone have any experience with this company or with another company?

Any advice would be welcome.

Susan

here's some people not happy with spending $50 on this website:

https://diysolarhomes.com/blog/power...er4-home-scam/

It takes a lot of skill to build your own solar panels. Or windmill. DIY is great but
you do need to take a lot of time and have some basic electrical skills to start.
The guy who built this website was an electrician but maybe should have learned
how to teach others before charging them for his video.

The lack of public testimonials on this website should be sufficient warning to save your money.
If they were a successful company, you would see lots of people stating how great this
site was at helping them save money.

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Posted in reply to the post by Brian:

here's some people not happy with spending $50 on this website:

https://diysolarhomes.com/blog/power-...er4-home-scam/

It takes a lot of skill to build your own solar panels. Or windmill. DIY is great but
you do need to take a lot of time and have some basic electrical skills to start.
The guy who built this website was an electrician but maybe should have learned
how to teach others before charging them for his video.

The lack of public testimonials on this website should be sufficient warning to save your money.
If they were a successful company, you would see lots of people stating how great this
site was at helping them save money.

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Hey Brian,

Thanks so much for your reply. I love it that I can make a post like this and get some good feedback. I had started searching the web for reviews but got ADD hah! I've only got 135 browsers up at Firefox! That never happens to anyone else around here, I know it :wink:

So the solar company I talked with on the phone, Sungevity, said that being totally off the grid is not only expensive but hard to maintain. True? False?

Any other pointers to my creating a small array off totally off the grid for small bucks? I'm open to a DIY model, but I'd have someone else install it who really knew what they were doing. I'd be set with 1500 watts for a heater, a fridge, 3 light bulbs and a computer. I've got plenty of sun. I'm open to wind too. I wonder how many watts of solar that would take?

Thanks for any ideas,
Susan

Hi, Susan:

I lived off the grid for 36 years; I didn't hire a solar company, since when I got my first two panels and an old truck battery, there weren't any solar companies (I also couldn't have afforded them). I later did a big upgrade to the system, and yes, it was expensive, but I still didn't have a "solar " company do it; just my contractor neighbor who also was off the grid.

I always had propane for the range, fridge and water heater; I got a generator for keeping the (expensive) batteries at a high charge level during the winter months when there might be a few days of no sun, so the batteries would last longer.

I had a wood stove for heat. You're probably aware that appliances that heat use the most watts, so having a space heater on a small system would probably not be feasible, especially in the winter (when you need the heat yet have the least sun).

Before I had anything but kerosene lamps, I visited a grower in Humboldt County who had solar and wind, and was installing a hydroelectric system for power tools; he said that the bad thing about a wind system was that when it malfunctioned you had to climb 60 feet up there to fix it (wind systems are almost certainly easier to maintain these days; this was in the early 1980s.

Let me know if you have any other questions that I might be able to answer; my ex-neighbor who installed my last upgrade would be happy, I'm sure, to give you more detailed and recent information.

Sara

Quote:

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Posted in reply to the post by intheflow88:

I've checked out the very appealing sales copy video at one company that offers videos and manuals on how to build your own solar panels and wind system for a couple hundred dollars for all you can eat energy for a 4 bedroom house. It is supposed to include every instruction from set up to placement and require only the knowledge of how to use a screw driver and a weekend's worth of time. It is selling for $50. www.power4home.com

The one misleading thing in the sales video was that you are simultaneously hooked up to the grid, but you have power when the grid goes down. Not true from what I've been told by a solar company.

Being off the grid, and doing it cheaply is what I'm looking for.

Does anyone have any experience with this company or with another company?

Any advice would be welcome.

Susan

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I have some experience setting up small, off-grid solar systems. There's no way you can do it for a few hundred dollars unless you happen to score some solar panels or other components free. I have looked at these web sites you mention, and they seem to be simply scams (there's more than one, probably done by the same person).

The basic components are: solar panels, batteries, charge controller, inverter. If you eliminate the electric heater as Sara wisely suggests, you could probably get by with a few hundred (200-400) watts worth of panels. The inverter is sized to the largest expected load. The charge controller prevents overcharging the batteries and is sized to the number of panels or maximum amps (current) they can produce. Extraneous items would be wiring and a fuse/circuit breaker panel. Once you buy these components (for perhaps $1500 - $2000), you - perhaps with the help of a solar-savvy electrician-type person - could do it yourself (depending on your skill level, motivation, etc.).

Feel free to get in touch if you need help figuring out what you'd need for a system. My hourly rate is reasonable.

Clint

Quote:

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Posted in reply to the post by intheflow88:

Hey Brian,

Thanks so much for your reply. I love it that I can make a post like this and get some good feedback. I had started searching the web for reviews but got ADD hah! I've only got 135 browsers up at Firefox! That never happens to anyone else around here, I know it :wink:

So the solar company I talked with on the phone, Sungevity, said that being totally off the grid is not only expensive but hard to maintain. True? False?

Any other pointers to my creating a small array off totally off the grid for small bucks? I'm open to a DIY model, but I'd have someone else install it who really knew what they were doing. I'd be set with 1500 watts for a heater, a fridge, 3 light bulbs and a computer. I've got plenty of sun. I'm open to wind too. I wonder how many watts of solar that would take?

Thanks for any ideas,
Susan

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This isn't about solar or wind, but one thing i've done in the past is to buy two more car batteries
and charge one from the alternator while i drive, using the other at home until it needs recharging.