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There is no doubt that DIY solar panels are the most important part of any solar residential equipment, therefore it’s a good idea to take a really close look at them so you’ll have a better understanding of how they fit into the areas of solar thermal and solar electrical construction. To get started, we need to examine the various kinds of DIY solar panels so you’ll understand the hows and whys of their differences from each other, even though we refer to them generically as DIY solar panels. A lot of people are under the incorrect impression that all versions of solar panels are alike, when in actuality, each type of DIY solar panel is meant for a different approach to harnessing the suns’s rays when it comes to solutions for the residential homeowner. If you’d like to know more about building your own DIY solar panels, here’s an excellent and well-proven guide:

To see an excellent article on DIY solar panels, take a look at Home DIY Solar Panels.

Now that you’ve discovered that solar energy is a good way to make your monthly utility bills more bearable or to eliminate them entirely, you’ll want to investigate a number of different approaches to instituting a primary DIY solar plan. A photovoltaic solar panel is one of several types of DIY solar panels that can help you immensely by turning simple sunshine into electricity. The electricity produced by photovoltaic panels can be used to power electrical devices inside and outside your home to produce significant monetary savings each month. You can choose to investigate commercially built solar photovoltaic panels but you’ll soon realize that they can cost a fortune if you have to buy them causing a very lengthy payback period, even considering tax credits.

To see an excellent article on DIY solar panels, make sure to see Home DIY Solar Panels – Start Yours Today!

A much more simple and economical route for you, the homeowner, is to choose DIY solar panels that you can quickly and easily build yourself using common materials available anywhere. You don’t need highly-refined construction skills to construct your own solar panels at home and outstanding, detailed guides are available to make sure you have all the instructions necessary so you always stay on track with your money-saving project. As soon as you’ve finished your home solar system, you can be very proud of the work you did on your DIY solar panels and you’ll know that your utility bills are going to be reduced immediately, also the savings will be ongoing in your home for the rest of your life because your system will keep on making electricity for you day in and day out. Being a homeowner with an excellent home solar system is far better than eternally paying a utility company’s high prices each month. To find out how to build your DIY solar panels, take a look at the following link:

An additional category of solar panel which hasn’t yet been discussed is the solar collector that acquires the sun’s solar thermal rays – this effects a heat transfer directly into water or it can transfer heat into an antifreeze medium which subsequently transfers the heat into the water which will be used in the home. Acting as heat collectors which ultimately heat your hot water, these DIY solar panels are exceptionally valuable to the monthly process of saving money on the utility bill. Since you are heating water for baths, showers, dish-washing and clothes washing with the sun’s energy captured by your DIY solar panels, using no natural gas or electrical water heating – you receive heated hot water which costs next to nothing and you save big dollars at the end of the month on your utility bill.

The heated water requirement for the average home is one of the worst dollar-cost offenders as far as your utility bill is concerned, once you implement DIY solar panels to heat water you will be breaking the public utility gas/electricity water-heating cycle and saving yourself many dollars for the rest of your life since you don’t depend on the utility company for energy to heat your household water!

DIY solar panels are extremely versatile and many homeowners like you can benefit if you convert to a solar pool to save even more energy each month. The technology for swimming pool heating is basically the same as solar hot water for the home with only a few small changes – this is an area where DIY solar panels really excel. Inexpensive solar heated water is much more comfortable for swimming than unheated water and it easily extends the swimming season by a minimum of several months each year – now you can take advantage of swimming year round while not squandering the family fortune on extremely high electrical bills.

I know just the idea of saving all that money has you energized and motivated now to build yourself a couple of DIY solar panels. Anyone can do it with common hand tools that most homes already have – and if you can turn a screwdriver, you have the skill level to complete this easy home project. You can easily follow excellent, professional-written guides which show you in simple, logical steps what to do to complete this simple solar project. You’ll be saving money off your monthly electrical bill before you know it – don’t forget to get yourself an excellent guide and start your DIY solar project today!

To find even more useful information on DIY solar panels, there’s another helpful resource for you at: DIY Solar Panels – How Much Can You Really Save? Posted by reusable bags direct

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I’d like to welcome Bob at Sustainable Energies Now to our eco community. They specialize in efficient and sustainable  strategies for residential and commercial construction. Here’s what Bob has to say about their approach…

We here at Sustainable Strategies, Inc. are committed to the education, evaluation, conservation and implementation of sustainable strategies for clients in Northwestern Illinois and South/Central Wisconsin. We have extensive experience in “traditional” residential and commercial construction. Taking that experience, we have integrated the technologies of sustainable construction and incorporating the renewable energy generation technologies of wind (building mounted small wind to monopole medium size wind), PV Solar, PV Solar Thermal and Geo-Thermal. Our focus is a client wanting to retrofit existing buildings and/or build a new sustainable building. With our effort targeted in the aforementioned geographic area, we are one step closer to leaving the legacy of a cleaner planet for our children and grandchildren.

Bob mentioned that their website will be done soon, when it is live I will add a link here for all of you to visit and learn more! Stay tuned…

I’d like to welcome Eric Jensen to our eco community he’s the founder of Sunmotor International and is a leading innovator on bringing solar energy to desolate areas and also implementation of new drilling technologies. Here’s a Q and A and more information about his approach to solar energy and the new Solar Shack…

Sunmotor is a startup company in central Alberta. Its mission is to develop and commercialize new solar products. We started with a line of DC [direct current] solar pumps developed to water livestock in remote pastures. This has grown into a nice market. Then we discovered that the same pumps can handle contaminated liquids, so they also fit well in environmental cleanup projects, for example the many brine-spill remediation projects underway in the oilpatch. These direct-powered systems are very simple: the solar panels automatically run the pump whenever there is enough sunlight and there’s liquid in the sump.

What is the Sunmotor Solar Shack 120?

This was developed for a remediation project east of Ponoka. Devon Canada wanted a system that continues to pump during cloudy weather. That way, effluent doesn’t accumulate in the sump when there isn’t enough sunlight to power the pump. Stantec Associates, Devon’s consultant, commissioned me to design a system that would supply power on demand. The first unit, which we’ve just finished, will be installed this spring.

What are the advantages of this model?

The Sunmotor Solar Shack 120 delivers 120 volts of alternating current [vac] power, enough to run a higher capacity pump if desired. The solar panels charge a bank of batteries. These large, sealed batteries supply DC power to an inverter, which converts it into AC. We added a thermostat control to shut off the pump when the temperature drops below freezing. If the pump continues to operate when the discharge line is frozen, the batteries could be discharged unnecessarily. The Solar Shack concept can be customized to meet each client’s power requirements, whether for 12 vac, 120 vac, or 240 vac.

As a custom designer, how does Sunmotor handle manufacturing?

It’s been a challenge. I used to subcontract out each component to separate suppliers – quite inefficient, but I had no other option. When I found Strad Structures in Stettler, Alta., I was like a kid in a candy store because it provides a one-location solution for structural, mechanical, and electrical services. Plus their manager, Don Petersen, responds with enthusiasm to whatever wild scheme I dream up, often pointing out how he could build it more efficiently with some minor changes.

Where do you see this technology heading in future?

Our products are well-suited for thousands of remote sites that only require a small amount of power. Sunmotor is now building a unit that integrates solar power with a generator backup. When the batteries need a boost in addition to what the sun delivers, the propane-powered genset will start automatically and run until the batteries are again fully charged. For example, this model could provide power for a camp where the noise of a continually running generator is a real annoyance. I also see interesting possibilities in countries with unreliable electricity supplies, a very widespread problem. A Solar Shack unit could provide a backup power supply that automatically kicks in whenever the power grid goes down.

Visit his website, Sunmotor International, to  learn all about his new technologies and his brilliant aid in bringing solar power to people across the world.

I’m honored to add Solar Richard to our eco community. He is an innovator in the field of solar energy whom is running many projects across the world to implement energies from the sun for building efficient houses to helping third world countries sustain electricity. He has actually stood on the North Pacific Gyre and witnessed first hand the extent of the repercussions on the waste society is creating.

SolarRichard is Tacoma Washington, USA’s own answer to how to make solar energy work in homes and offices, even in the Pacific Northwet, where, “We don’t Tan, we Rust.”  As the name implies, SolaRichard has devoted a good chunk of his adult life (over 30 years) to solar energy.  He has been speaking and teaching on the subject for some time. He was honored at the 50th Annual Solar World Conference in Orlando, Florida, USA at “2005 Solar World Congress” as a Solar Pioneer with more than 25+ years in the solar industry. See his Summer Solstice party.

Most recently, he spoke on Solar Energy and LED Lighting at “Solar Nigeria 2007″ in Abuja, Nigeria, Africa.  He is now working on a plan to electrify rural Nigerian villages with solar energy and bring them LED lighting. He offered to build a solar production plant using materials from Nigeria and allow Nigeria to become a World player in the photovoltaic market.

He is a font of solar ideas.  You can see his idea for using solar LED light to illuminate the Tacoma Narrows Bridge at www.NarrowsBridgeLights.org .  He has been published in Solar Today, REfocus, the Kiplinger Report, Mother Earth News, and interviewed by several TV stations, radio and newspapers.  Locally, he is working with students at Bellarmine High School on solar projects that have won 1st place at the INTEL Science Competition for Solar Engineering these past four years.

He is a font of solar ideas.  You can see his idea for using solar LED light to illuminate the Tacoma Narrows Bridge at www.NarrowsBridgeLights.org .  He has been published in Solar Today, REfocus, the Kiplinger Report, Mother Earth News, and interviewed by several TV stations, radio and newspapers.  Locally, he is working with students at Bellarmine High School on solar projects that have won 1st place at the INTEL Science Competition for Solar Engineering these past four years.

And, as one might expect, he was the first in Tacoma to have a solar tracking grid-tie that allows his electric meter to go backwards.  He uses a photovoltaic solar tracking system so that his solar array is always facing the Sun at the optimal angle for peak efficiency.  He has number of solar demonstration projects, including a 1.8KW remote solar power system in his Chevy Suburban to solar power Al Gore’s movie, “An Inconvenient Truth” at local libraries and schools. He also has a solar electric scooter, solar massage chair, solar attic fan, solar LED security lights, solar Stereo/CD and more.  He will be using his solar know how to power the PA system for the Daffodil Parade and provide solar power for the Jazz & Blues Music Festival later that afternoon.

This is just a small subset of Richard’s breakthroughs in utilizing solar energy on a mass scale. Keep up the good work, you are setting the table for our sustainable future Richard!