David asks…
how to make solar panels or windmills at home cheap?
i have been looking for how to make solar panels at home for cheap. i only found expensive ebooks that tell you what to buy and how to put it together. is there anything free someone posted somewhere on what to buy and how to put together solar panels cheap? if not then windmills work too, so long as i dont have to buy an ebook or anything like that. maybe someone posted how to make one in a blog somewhere. if you know where, please tell me the link. thanks!
adminsta answers:
My dad made a solar heater the following way, maybe you can modify it for your needs?
You will need foam insulation, 2 junk glass patio doors, about three cases worth of empty soda cans, black spraypaint, epoxy, caulk, dryer hose, plywood the size of the patio doors, and a thermostat-controlled fan.
Cut a hole in the plywood the same diameter as the dryer hose. Spray one side of the plywood black. Cut tops off soda cans, epoxy to plywood. The cans should touch at the sides and completely cover the wood. Spray all cans black. Cut insulation to make “sides” of a box, a little taller than the soda cans on all four sides of the plywood. Seal patio doors to the insulation “sides” after installing thermostat on the patio doors. Run dryer hose inside.
Make sure you put this in direct sunlight. The way it works is that the sunlight heats up the sprayed metal through the glass. As soon as it gets as hot as you’ve set the thermostat, the fan kicks on and blows hot air into the house until it cools off again. I know it sounds sort of MacGuyver crazy, but it kept my basement bedroom warm when I was a teenager. Good luck!
George asks…
looking for info on home based electric windmills?
The kids and I have started a scince project, with an alternator form a old Honda and a store bought DC to AC converter, we took 50 dollars of last month power bill. Now we want to see if we can do a bit more. Any ideas??
adminsta answers:
Sounds like quite the science project. (all I remember was matches and tinfoil)
With wind the difference between messing around and saving power is whether or not it is attached to the grid. This requires a more expensive power inverter (a regular non synchronized one from the store will explode). Once attached to the grid your system doesn’t need as many expensive batteries since you can sell to the power company when its windy and buy when its not.
Here is a expensive looking one
http://www.xantrex.com/web/id/163/p/1/pt/15/product.asp
Good Luck
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