Along with the cost of living going up, energy costs are always in hot pursuit. But since necessity is the author of invention, more people are learning how they can live off the utility grid by building their own solar panels at home.

Earth Day was just a few days ago and once again people are energized about using renewable energy to not only lower their electricity bills but also to help the planet. Whereas “going green” was once just a cool thing to do, now it is becoming a necessary thing and something that each family should at least consider.

Net-metering is one way that people are using to fight back against high energy costs and high carbon emissions. It is simply a method of tying into your electric grid and by producing more power than you use (like using wind and solar power for your energy needs) the meter will actually spin backwards. So how is this good for you? Well the more you use net-metering to spin that meter backwards, the more money the power company will actually pay you. Now, this is a nice little roll reversal. Using your own solar panels can now be like a part time job as it pays you back and helps fight this struggling economy at the same time.

Most home owners will not even consider using solar power because of the cost of most solar companies to install their systems. Because of this, there have been many DIY solar power programs that have been started, allowing people to use their own materials to build solar panels and wind turbines. It’s amazing how many of these ebooks and videos there are in circulation right now, but most of them are all hyped up and not worth the purchase. But while you beware of these over-hyped programs, you can still consider going off the electrical grid yourself.

What makes net metering so exciting is that you can be compensated for creating all of that power. If you were not using a net metering system, then you can create all kinds of energy to store in your batteries but when your batteries are full and you are still creating wind or solar power, all of this energy would be wasted. With so much energy being produced naturally by the sun and the wind, it would be a shame to waste any of it, so the the net metering solution is one that a lot of do-it-yourselfers are finding ideal.

Wind power has been in the news a lot lately and for good reason. According to a report by US officials, wind turbines will power 30% of the United States by the year 2030. There are some big breaks in technology that need to happen for that figure to be correct but more and more we are seeing a trend towards renewable energy to power our country.

But how about powering your home with wind power? You don’t have to wait 20 years in order to see the benefits of using the winds constant power. In fact, you can get started right now with DIY wind power and make your own wind turbine from your garage or backyard. These wind kits can be purchased on ebay or you can find some plans on the internet for making your own.

But you need to be careful.

There are a lot of scams out there. The only renewable energy program I recommend can teach you everything you need to know about how to make wind turbines and it includes over 2 hours of videos and pictures and diagrams to step you through the process.  The customer support is incredible and in less than a day you can have you own wind turbine system (if you already have the materials).  You can check out this program at GreenDIYEnergy here.

The amount of electricity you can create really depends on how long the blades of your turbine are.  But if you are not getting  winds over 20-30 miles per hour where you will be putting the wind turbines you will not want really big blades on it.  Even with fairly gentle winds you can use a wind turbine but you will want shorter blades which are light and can turn easily in a nice 10 mile per hour wind.

Once you determine how much wind you get where you live you can see what size blades you will need.  And remember that you will want to put the wind generator up in the air, above the tree line if there are trees around.  You don’t want anything to block that wind flow from hitting the turbine.  There can be a lot of strain on these blades in stiff winds so you want a nice strong gearbox as well.  The turbines used by big power companies are often having problems with the gearboxes because they are not able to handle the strain.  A good turbine should be able to last for 20 years or more without needing any parts to be replaced so the quality of your parts is a crucial element in your DIY project.

If you are tired of paying the power company lots of money you should try a homemade solar power system which will save a lot of cash for you and your family. In fact, solar power for your home can be done with some products probably already lying around the house, and the rest can be purchased at a home improvement store.

The roof of your house is of vital importance as to how and where your solar panels will be. With the right angle to the sun, your solar panels will get a lot of usable energy from it. Solar power for your home will not get as much juice as it should if you don’t have a proper placement of your solar panels. facing south is a good direction for your solar panels to face if you happen to live above the equater. Avoid shade at all costs or it will cost you in the long run. If even less than 1/10 of your solar panel is covered by shade, it will cut your system’s efficiency by 50%.

If you want your how to do it yourself solar power for your home to work right, you will also need to look at the average amount of days you will have rain cloud cover in your region, and prepare your solar power system for the worst months, so you will have enough solar panels to supply the energy you need all year long.

Batteries make up the mist vital part of the homemade solar power system. Batteries are essential because they allow you to have power even when the sun is not shining or when it is cloudy and the solar panels are not producing as much electricity. Hooking up your DIY solar power system to your power grid is the only way to avoid using batteries, but this can be a complicated process that I find is best to avoid if you can. Batteries will have to be replaced after years of usage, but the kind you want to look for are called deep-cycle batteries. These types of batteries can ensure long periods of time of usage and also very little lose in power.

There is another item that is absolutely essential in your homemade solar power system and that is a charge controller. This controller will make sure that your batteries are not drained all the way or filled up too much, which makes the batteries last longer.

For the last step of your homemade solar power setup you will need a means of converting the DC to AC form of electricity. In order to accomplish this you will need to obtain an inverter. There are a few electrical inverters that will not require a whole lot of wiring but some electrical experience would be beneficial. To be certain that your system is up to the proper code it would be best to have a professional electrician check out everything or even do it for you.

Once all of the above has been completed you will have free, clean electricity for more than 20 years, and then some maintenance will probably be required. All those years will be spent not spending more and more money on rising energy costs. It’s better than having your own generator because even in the midst of a major storm or a big power outage in your community, you will still have all the electricity you need from your homemade solar power kit.