1. Listen to yo mamma – turn out the lights when you leave the room and unplug any appliances you are not using! Seems basic but let’s face it – most people don’t practice this enough!

2. Invest in an efficiency water kit from your local efficiency provider, they don’t cost much and end up saving you quite a bit of money throughout the years to come. The initial price may put you off, but think rationally and logically.

3. Consider investing into natural power for your home. Home made solar power kits mean you can generate free energy.

4. Learn about wind systems – more and more of them are popping up everyday, there is NOTHING stopping you from building your own windmill, and it doesn’t cost much money or time to set one up. This means you’ll be able to power your appliances and electronics with free and clean power.

5. If you have a gas chugging, binge drinking, beast of a car – consider taking your ‘other’ car more often. Or if you don’t have another car, consider finally trading your money pit in for something like a hybrid or economy efficient king. Nobody says you have to lose your ‘style’ by doing something positive for the environment. Alternatively you could take advantage of public transport.

6. Treat yourself to a proper home audit – start with your lights. Make sure you install energy efficient light bulbs in the high use areas of your home. Might sound silly but also CLEAN your light bulbs – keeping them clean actually both ensures a crisp bright area and minimizes cost and lifecycle of each bulb.

7. Invest in the most hidden secret to home-owners… A caulking gun and some weather stripping and seals. Your home loses most of it’s heat through the cracks of your walls, windows, and doors. Sealing every single leak is going to ensure your home is cozy, retains heat, and uses less electricity to help minimize your bills.

8. When you use your oven to cook – rather basic but LEAVE IT OPEN when you are finished with your cooking. Why just let the warm air sit there in your closed over – use it to both lengthen the great aromas that you just created, and the time the areas surrounding the kitchen stay warm.

9. During the colder seasons, do your best to minimize fuel usage to heat your place up. Skimping out on that last degree could potentially save you a lot of money. Humans sleep better when it is slightly chillier in the nights, go figure.

10. Keep your car’s tires pressured to the accepted value, and when in stop-still traffic, simply turn off your engine. While trivial, you do save up on the petrol, engine wear (especially the clutch), and you reduce your carbon footprint.

Renewable energy sources or non-renewable energy sources; the idea is to save as much as possible. The Energy Crisis has broken our backs and we really don’t have an obvious way out. So how about generating your own electricity from today?

You might be tempted to ask how that is possible. Well! We can satiate your curiosity. Just walk with us. Don’t look for harnessing the wind or water or any such source. Just make your own solar panel. We claim it’s too easy to build. Don’t say we hadn’t told you.

We will look to heat water and not producing electricity. So lo and behold! Let’s make a panel which will lock sun’s energy in a container.

A Solar Panel has 4 key components:

- Thick glass or Perspex
- 2×4 wood
- Thick plywood board
- Reflective radiator (for insulation)

Assembling a solar panel is no tough task. Just begin with choosing the size of container. Now this does not need you to have a Mensal IQ. All you need to know is what volume of water you are looking to heat. The central idea would be to soak high degree of heat and let the minimal degree escape. Now this is no rocket science either.

Use a thick front face. Glass or Perspex is ideal. It gives adequate green house effect. Remember the monster greenhouse gases, does it ring a bell. Glass would require frames for keeping it tightly positioned.

Drill holes on top and bottom of container for water conduits. Sounds simple and it is simple to execute too. Now thick glass is good at absorbing but we need the inner lining to be marked by something that can insulate and not let the heat pass. Tin foil is a nice option. Even nicer option is a reflective radiator.

Equipment listBacking-board
- Thermometer
- Nuts and bolts
- Screwdrivers
- Frames
- Cutting tools
- Flame weld
- Driller
- Beer

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This “How to Make a Solar Panel” article will not be enough – as you will need schematics/blueprints. However it was intended as a little booster push in the right direction. Schematics/Blueprints are available over the internet. Efficient Planet is a great manual, and you can read my review of it here. It is replete with great step by step instruction.

Use thermometers or else you will have to be very circumspect. Sometimes water reaches very high levels of temperatures that can cause real skin burns. Now don’t start imagining all that.

Well – I hope this short & sweet How to Make a Solar Panel article has inspired you to do a bit of research one probably one of the more fun DIY projects.

Efficient Planet has got to be one of the most innovative DIY energy guides yet. It takes you through step by step on how to create your very own homemade energy. From chosing the materials for your solar panels and windmills, to building. The blueprints are detailed, but written in simple english.

Efficient Planet has received quite a lot of praise – Here’s part of a testimonial:

“… It’s only been a few weeks since I’ve started to take your actions outlined in the books, and can already see how and why I am going to save a TON of money on all my bills. The way that your DIY is setup is easy to follow, and the efficient living book is something I’ve actually read twice now. “

Benefits and Features

I was completely taken off guard by how easy it is to build a solar panel using “The Efficient Planet” step by step blueprints. I recommend this guide not only because it is illustrated, easy to follow and makes a fun project – but it actually generates very, very good results.

How you ask? Simple, you do a couple of hours of research on “Do It Yourself Solar Panels” or “DIY Wind Turbine” and pretty soon you’ll end up with some blueprints. The next day you take a trip to your hardware store, request your materials, and you’re good to go. Over the following days and nights you follow your “DIY Solar Panels, and DIY Windmill” blueprints carefully and after several days of work, you sit back, relax, and enjoy a nice cool beer.

Ideal, no? Unfortunately the answer is no. Whilst there are many blueprints available for free on the internet, most of the time it takes skill to decipher and assemble the damn thing. There is next to zero free “DIY Solar Panels and DIY Wind Turbine” blueprint that is done in a way that most people can understand them.

This is an issue – Because the Energy Crisis affects everyone. Not just the Harvard Grads that came up with the mind melting, nut kicking, gibberish speaking papers they call blueprints.

The next issue is price. The cost of the materials usually provided by these “free” blueprints dwell into the thousands. What good is your own Homemade Energy if it doesn’t pay itself off in an acceptable time frame?

Boy have I got good news for you. Recently an acquaintance of mine released his own blueprints written in a way that everyone could understand them. Hell, even a 14 year old can come to terms with it. These blueprints enable you to create your very own homemade solar panels, along with your own homemade DIY wind turbine & wind generators.

The best part? The materials will cost you no more than $200 bucks! Cost-effective, saves your ass on the next energy bill (up to 80% – oO), and best of all written in plain and simple English. The blueprints are called here.

To read my review on the “DIY Solar Panels & DIY Wind Turbine + Generators” Blueprints, please click here.