Which DIY Solar Panel Guide is Best?
GreenDIYEnergy
GreenDIYEnergy is the most comprehensive and the best of the DIY solar guides. It includes 17 different components ranging from ebooks to spreadsheet to videos. The videos are what really separate GreenDIYEnergy from the other guides.
GreenDIY Energy includes 6 videos which cover the entire build. The videos are at a resolution of 852×480 and are mp4 videos. Compared to the videos in the other guides, the videos in GreenDIYEnergy are much larger and higher quality. The videos go all the way from start to finish, step-by-step and look terrific. The high resolution and big size make it easy to see everything.
They start with what parts you’ll need as well as the tools required for building the solar panel. Next up is soldering together the solar cells. Building the container and affixing the solar cells is covered next. Then they show final wiring of the panel and finishing. The last step is connecting the solar panel to a volt meter so you can watch it producing electricity.
The ebooks included in GreenDIYEnergy cover, among other things, solar electrical, solar tax credits, solar installation and DIY solar power. There are over 200 pages of material in the ebooks so they are quite comprehensive. Also included are spreadsheet which will show you how many solar panels you’ll need, sizing for batteries, charge controller and power inverter and how much electricity your appliances consume.
GreenDIYEnergy is the best and most comprehensive DIY solar guide I have seen, after buying and reviewing quite a few DIY solar guides in preparation for building a solar panel for my electric bike.
Homemade Energy
Homemade energy is another very good guide to building a DIY solar panel. It includes more videos than any other guide. There are also ebooks, though not as many as GreenDIYEnergy, and spreadsheets that are very similar.
There are more videos in Homemade Energy than in any other guide. They cover the entire process from start to finish in a lot of detail. Tools and parts, soldering the cells together, building the container, attaching the cells, wiring and finishing. Everything from what parts and tools you need to wiring the solar cells together to constructing the panel container to final wiring is covered. While they are not quite as large and high quality as the GreenDIYEnergy videos, they are still quite good.
The ebook included with Homemade Energy is pretty comprehensive and covers all facets of solar panel construction. My suggestion would be to watch the videos all the way through and then use the ebook as a reference. It also includes a spreadsheet with sizing calculators that is very similar to the one included with GreenDIYEnergy.
GreenDIYEnergy includes more ebooks and has higher quality video so I would give it the nod over Homemade Energy, but Homemade Energy is also quite good and does have more video than GreenDIYEnergy. Homemade Energy is also a very good package, though, and you do get your money’s worth.
Earth4Energy
I put Earth4Energy in 3rd place. They include videos, online calculators and ebooks, however there are less of them than the other two packages. It is the only package to include video for a wind project and the solar material is pretty good as well, but I think for a solar guide the videos in GreenDIYEnergy and Homemade Energy put then in front of Earth4Energy.
The parts of the project that are most likely to cause problems are covered with videos, but the videos are not comprehensive. You have to go to the ebook for much of the build information with Earth4Energy, while the other 2 guides show you the whole project from start to finish in the videos.
While not as comprehensive as the other two guides, the ebook is pretty good. Earth4Energy includes online calculators for appliance electricity requirements, solar panel output and battery sizing.
So, can you build a solar panel with Earth4Energy? It’s definitely possible to build a solar panel with what is included in Earth4Energy, but both of the other guides have more video and the video is the most important part of guides like this. For those of you planning to build a wind generator, Earth4Energy is the only guide that has video for a wind project. While Earth4Energy will allow you to build a solar panel, the other guides above will provide more for your money.
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