I ran across a website that says it's easy to build your own solar
panels and home made windmills. Anyone actually done this?

On Oct 2, 10:46*pm, Ashton Crusher wrote:
I ran across a website that says it's easy to build your own solar
panels and home made windmills. *Anyone actually done this?

alt.energy.homepower is a group that would have alot that do this

On Oct 3, 4:54�am, ransley wrote:
On Oct 2, 10:46�pm, Ashton Crusher wrote:

I ran across a website that says it's easy to build your own solar
panels and home made windmills. �Anyone actually done this?

alt.energy.homepower is a group that would have alot that do this

for windmill you must have a windy unobstructed spot, preferably high
on a hill.

my best friend built one in 1960 it has a 14 foot prop, a sophiscated
control system that detects faults and shuts it down in say a
overspeed condition if the brakes fail. too high a speed can rip it
apart, as he once found out when the brakes got covered with ice

but it has never produced power in big useful amounts

solar panels require a sunny climate, the sunnier the better. their
upfront costs are so high they are rarely a good investment, unless
you live somewhere like arizonia or southern california.

a solar water heater can provide some return for heating your homes
water, to supplement you regular water heater

probably better way to spend money is super insulating your home, with
closed cell foam, new windows etc. at least the payback wll be in your
lifetime...........

sorry to be a gloomy gus but its just the facts..

On Fri, 02 Oct 2009 22:54:14 -0500, AZ Nomad
wrote:

On Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:46:27 -0700, Ashton Crusher wrote:
I ran across a website that says it's easy to build your own solar
panels and home made windmills. Anyone actually done this?

What the **** are you babbling about?

Why don't you post the name of what you are talking about?
Better yet, why don't you ask your neighbor's nine year old kid
to help you get to google and enter the name of the company and
learn how to do the research yourself without asking any more
inane pointless questions?

Anyone who would have anything useful to contribute (obviously not
you) would know what I'm talking about. I purposely did not put in
the web site as I don't want to look like I'm posting one of those
fake postings to promote a web site. Are you always an ass hole?

On Sat, 03 Oct 2009 10:13:12 -0700, Ashton Crusher wrote:
On Fri, 02 Oct 2009 22:54:14 -0500, AZ Nomad
wrote:

On Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:46:27 -0700, Ashton Crusher wrote:
I ran across a website that says it's easy to build your own solar
panels and home made windmills. Anyone actually done this?

What the **** are you babbling about?

Why don't you post the name of what you are talking about?
Better yet, why don't you ask your neighbor's nine year old kid
to help you get to google and enter the name of the company and
learn how to do the research yourself without asking any more
inane pointless questions?

Anyone who would have anything useful to contribute (obviously not
you) would know what I'm talking about. I purposely did not put in
the web site as I don't want to look like I'm posting one of those
fake postings to promote a web site. Are you always an ass hole?

Sure. You purposefully made youself out to be a blithering idiot high
on weed.

"Ashton Crusher" wrote in message
...
I ran across a website that says it's easy to build your own solar
panels and home made windmills. Anyone actually done this?

From everything I've seen and read by the time you buy a bunch of "seconds"
solar cells and put them all together in a panel you may as well just buy a
panel. Recently I've seen panels advertised for just over $2/watt and there
is speculation that they may go even lower in about a year. Keep in mind
that this "breakthrough" has be on the verge for a long, long time and
hasn't happened yet ;-) There's a recent thread about it on alt energy.
homepower (PV Panels $1.98/Watt? vaughn 9/20/09).

As for windmills, as was mentioned you need a spot with really good,
consistant wind, a high tower, and probably so many permits that it would
never result in a positive gain financially.

I see these as viable options to produce electricity if you live somewhere
where the grid is not available. Otherwise it is almost always cheaper to
buy it from the electric company.

On Sat, 3 Oct 2009 11:16:02 -0700, Ulysses wrote:

"Ashton Crusher" wrote in message
.. .
I ran across a website that says it's easy to build your own solar
panels and home made windmills. Anyone actually done this?

From everything I've seen and read by the time you buy a bunch of "seconds"
solar cells and put them all together in a panel you may as well just buy a
panel. Recently I've seen panels advertised for just over $2/watt and there
is speculation that they may go even lower in about a year. Keep in mind
that this "breakthrough" has be on the verge for a long, long time and
hasn't happened yet ;-) There's a recent thread about it on alt energy.
homepower (PV Panels $1.98/Watt? vaughn 9/20/09).

As for windmills, as was mentioned you need a spot with really good,
consistant wind, a high tower, and probably so many permits that it would
never result in a positive gain financially.

I have this image of the OP using solar panels for windmill blades.

On Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:46:27 -0700, Ashton Crusher wrote:

I ran across a website that says it's easy to build your own solar
panels and home made windmills. Anyone actually done this?

Not yet... but I am keen to throw an alternator together sometime though,
with some blades to drive it. The barn roof's about 40' high, so
with a tower atop that it might stand a chance of doing something slightly
useful (I'm very skeptical about wind power, but it'd be a fun experiment
at least)

Machining blades that are both strong, balanced, and with the right
profiles is sure going to be interesting!

Regarding solar, do you mean panels producing electricity, or ones for
heating water? The latter should be pretty easy to do, inexpensive, and be
capable of doing useful things (even if nothing like 24x7). From what I've
read on homebrew PV panels though, it sounds like it's just not worth the
effort.

cheers

Jules

Ashton Crusher wrote:
I ran across a website that says it's easy to build your own solar
panels and home made windmills. Anyone actually done this?

There is a scam operation that sells a nearly useless booklet with this in mind.
There are also lots of websites with real info, expecially about homemade
windmills and solar thermal.

On Sat, 03 Oct 2009 21:09:29 -0500, Jules
wrote:

On Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:46:27 -0700, Ashton Crusher wrote:

I ran across a website that says it's easy to build your own solar
panels and home made windmills. Anyone actually done this?

Not yet... but I am keen to throw an alternator together sometime though,
with some blades to drive it. The barn roof's about 40' high, so
with a tower atop that it might stand a chance of doing something slightly
useful (I'm very skeptical about wind power, but it'd be a fun experiment
at least)

Machining blades that are both strong, balanced, and with the right
profiles is sure going to be interesting!

Regarding solar, do you mean panels producing electricity, or ones for
heating water? The latter should be pretty easy to do, inexpensive, and be
capable of doing useful things (even if nothing like 24x7). From what I've
read on homebrew PV panels though, it sounds like it's just not worth the
effort.

cheers

Jules


Electric. Since I'm in the city the windmill is probably a lost cause
and it sounds like the solar thing is iffy.

On Sat, 03 Oct 2009 13:13:57 -0500, AZ Nomad
wrote:

On Sat, 03 Oct 2009 10:13:12 -0700, Ashton Crusher wrote:
On Fri, 02 Oct 2009 22:54:14 -0500, AZ Nomad
wrote:

On Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:46:27 -0700, Ashton Crusher wrote:
I ran across a website that says it's easy to build your own solar
panels and home made windmills. Anyone actually done this?

What the **** are you babbling about?

Why don't you post the name of what you are talking about?
Better yet, why don't you ask your neighbor's nine year old kid
to help you get to google and enter the name of the company and
learn how to do the research yourself without asking any more
inane pointless questions?

Anyone who would have anything useful to contribute (obviously not
you) would know what I'm talking about. I purposely did not put in
the web site as I don't want to look like I'm posting one of those
fake postings to promote a web site. Are you always an ass hole?

Sure. You purposefully made youself out to be a blithering idiot high
on weed.

*plonk*

bob haller wrote:
On Oct 3, 4:54?am, ransley wrote:
On Oct 2, 10:46?pm, Ashton Crusher wrote:

I ran across a website that says it's easy to build your own solar
panels and home made windmills. ?Anyone actually done this?

alt.energy.homepower is a group that would have alot that do this

for windmill you must have a windy unobstructed spot, preferably high
on a hill.

my best friend built one in 1960 it has a 14 foot prop, a sophiscated
control system that detects faults and shuts it down in say a
overspeed condition if the brakes fail. too high a speed can rip it
apart, as he once found out when the brakes got covered with ice

but it has never produced power in big useful amounts

solar panels require a sunny climate, the sunnier the better. their
upfront costs are so high they are rarely a good investment, unless
you live somewhere like arizonia or southern california.

a solar water heater can provide some return for heating your homes
water, to supplement you regular water heater

probably better way to spend money is super insulating your home, with
closed cell foam, new windows etc. at least the payback wll be in your
lifetime...........

sorry to be a gloomy gus but its just the facts..

Yep. The sun lays down 745 watts of energy per sq meter. At noon. On the
Equator. On sunny days.

The only way to increase this value is to move the orbit of the earth closer
to the sun.

After adjusting for latitude, conversion efficiency, clouds, etc., you might
get, at best, 200 watts per sq meter of collector. Plus, accounting for the
energy costs to build the equipment, transportation, and installation, the
pay-back period is almost forever.

On Sat, 03 Oct 2009 22:52:09 -0700, Ashton Crusher wrote:
Electric. Since I'm in the city the windmill is probably a lost cause

Yeah, I suspect you couldn't get enough height to make it really useful
(as useful as they can get, anwyay)

and it sounds like the solar thing is iffy.

Uh huh. Waiting a few years for costs to come down and then buying a
commercial panel might be the best bet (I'm sure they'll get cheaper;
right now I'm not convinced they save enough over their lifetime to
justify the cost)

I keep getting told that domestic heating's the real expense though, so
anything simple you can do to minimise that is worthwhile (insulation,
lots of south-facing windows etc.)

cheers

Jules

AZ Nomad wrote:
On Sat, 03 Oct 2009 10:13:12 -0700, Ashton Crusher wrote:
On Fri, 02 Oct 2009 22:54:14 -0500, AZ Nomad
wrote:
On Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:46:27 -0700, Ashton Crusher wrote:

I ran across a website that says it's easy to build your own solar
panels and home made windmills. Anyone actually done this?

What the **** are you babbling about?

Why don't you post the name of what you are talking about?
Better yet, why don't you ask your neighbor's nine year old kid
to help you get to google and enter the name of the company and
learn how to do the research yourself without asking any more
inane pointless questions?

Anyone who would have anything useful to contribute (obviously not
you) would know what I'm talking about. I purposely did not put in
the web site as I don't want to look like I'm posting one of those
fake postings to promote a web site. Are you always an ass hole?

Sure. You purposefully made youself out to be a blithering idiot high
on weed.

No, he/she didn't. The question was reasonable. You came
across as someone who is very unstable with severe emotional
issues.




--

http://911research.wtc7.net
http://www.journalof911studies.com/
http://www.ae911truth.org

Q Are you always an ass hole?

A Sure.

Ashton Crusher wrote:
I ran across a website that says it's easy to build your own solar
panels and home made windmills. Anyone actually done this?

There is a fellow who has posted here in a thread about wood molding
who has a very informative site about solar power. He's an interesting
guy.

http://www.iedu.com/DeSoto/

TDD