My experience with building a DIY solar panel was fraught with difficulties. Yet I’m glad I learned a few things along the way so you can benefit from it and save yourself heaps of money and needless detours. Here’s my story…
A few years ago, in 2008, I had a rude awakening as I received an energy bill of over $250. Even though my household energy consumption remained the same, the bill increased dramatically over the months.
As it turns out, the energy rate has risen again! And this is happening more frequently than ever. The effect of rising oil price has affected many families, including mine. Yet when the price of oil dipped, there wasn’t much adjustment downward.
Naturally, I was angry!
Few weeks later, I met up with a friend who proudly introduced me to his roof-mounted solar panels. I was excited. Because if I install the same thing on my roof, I won’t have to pay energy bills again.
After a little digging, I realized all these promise of harvesting energy from the sun doesn’t really pay off financially. Here’s what I found out:
- A typical solar panels installation costs at least $20,000 for a complete setup. Most of them cost more.
- With such upfront cost, it’ll take me at least 30 years before my energy supply becomes (technically) free.
But I was hooked on this idea of harnessing energy from nature, especially when sunlight is abundant where I live. There was no turning back. This propelled me on the search for an affordable energy system that can take me off grid.
My search began at major retailers but it proved futile. After researching on the Internet and talking to a few friends, my only alternative is to make a DIY solar energy system myself.
I was confident of this approach as I graduated with an Engineering degree.
Five weeks and a bruised knuckle later, I had my first failed project. Everything was well planned on paper and my calculations were precise. Sadly, practical application required more than just theory derived from the books I referenced. This is especially so for DIY solar panel projects.
I’ve already lost hundreds of dollars on trial and error. Ouch! It was at this juncture I decided to get proper instruction to build a reliable solar panel system.
With high hopes, I searched around for a good guide to help me. I bought one guide after another, hoping each guide can help me build my DIY project.
Another two hundred and seventy bucks later, my bookshelf and hard drive was replete with instructional guides. But none of them helped. Again, I was disappointed. It seemed my dream of living off-grid was shattered.
All I found were nothing but rehashed material from textbooks and many of them simply copied each other’s work. Some were so difficult even an engineering graduate like me finds it too time consuming to understand. Others lack crucial information that left me high and dry. Yet others lacked customer support.
Then I decided to put all these DIY stuff away and call it quits. It just didn’t work out…
I went back to my usual life and paid my regular energy bills.
Five months later, I was looking for an electrical component for a client and bumped into a young lady, Susie, looking for a similar item. Curious, I asked her what she wanted these components for. (It was unusual for ladies to shop around for such electrical stuff…)
I was shocked to learn she had almost completed her own DIY solar panels. She just doesn’t look like she can handle any tools, let alone build anything at all.
Excited, I went online to scrutinize the website she recommended, www.earth4energy.com
It looked like one of those websites I bought from, so I was a little apprehensive. But I bought it anyway. By now, my enthusiasm has dried up. Yet somehow my curiosity led me to begin building a DIY solar panel.
One weekend later, I had my first DIY solar panel leaning against my garage door waiting to be installed. I was pleased, and very thankful for meeting Susie at the hardware shop.
This guide she recommended truly makes building your own solar panels easy to understand. Best of all, it shows you how and where to get very affordable components and materials to build your project.
With the low cost involved, it probably takes only 3 years before the cost of the hardware is fully paid back. After that, energy will be totally free for my family and me. Of course, we’ll soon be living entirely on renewable energy.
For the first time in my life, living on free electricity became a reality.
If you have the aspiration to build your own DIY solar panels like I did, I encourage you to take the first step… Look for a good instructional guide and take action to build a system that can harness free energy from the sun. You, too, will be glad you did.
You can learn a lot about building DIY solar panels here and also see many newbies accomplish amazing projects on their first try:
www.earth4energy.com
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