Going Green - Eliminate Your Power Bill

Learn how to convert your home to Alternative Energy.

Miller Britzke (Alternative Energy Engineer) Helps Large Businesses to Convert To Green Power wrote:

"I am an engineer who works with corporations to help them go green by converting to solar and wind energy. I know what it takes to create an alternative energy plan that works, and I know how to implement those plans."

As an engineer who works in the realm of alternative energy, there is one thing that often surprises me.The range of quality of information on how to go green is simply astounding. At least once a week, someone will ask me how they can learn how to convert their home, and answering that question can be difficult.

Simply put, there are literally hundreds of products out there that teach you how to switch a home to solar or wind generated energy. When you look at these products though, only a few of them are worth anything. Converting a home using professionals is an expensive proposition. To compensate many are turning to do-it-yourself books and making the move to go green on their own. With the wide range of information available, let's first discuss what a go-green learning package is and is not.

First, a program that teaches you to convert your home is NOT the only thing you need. To make the actual conversion you'll still need to follow the guide to building solar panels or windmills or both.

Second, NOT every home is appropriate for green conversion. If you live in an condo for example you don't have the surface area for solar panels, or the land needed to setup a windmill.

Third, a package that teaches you how to convert your home IS an excellent way to reduce and even get rid of that month power bill. In fact, if you do it right you'll likely generate more energy than you use, and the power company will have to pay you for the power you feed back into the grid. Best of all, if you choose the right methods to convert your home it can be done for very little cost to you.

Fourth, if you don't take the time to choose the right learning tools then you're just wasting your money. You even run the risk of creating problems for yourself when your real estate value drops due to the non-working solar panels that are covering the roof. Choosing the right tool to learn with is the most important step!

To help you choose a green power package that works, along with some friends, I have worked to evaluate the top five learning products on the market today. We based my evaluations on the following criteria.

* Green Power - Obviously our main goal from any power generation project is to generate power. We tested how much power each solar panel and windmill could actually generate.

* Ease of Building - With a package that teaches how to convert a home, the material should be clearly laid out, and the components should be simple to build.

* Instructional Value - From the above criteria we gave higher ratings to those learning packages that taught us how to go green with ease. The best packages had everything clearly explained, drawn blueprints, and then further explained with how-to videos.

* Cost Involved - The main reason people choose to convert their home themselves is to save money. We gave much higher ratings to the packages that taught us how to find parts for less.

* Availability of Parts - Some of the learning packages we tested recommended parts that weren't available. We gave higher marks to those that used parts that were available to anyone (such as at your local hardware store)

* Time Involved - How long did it take to build each component. We found this had a lot to do with how well the material was explained, but some of the plans just weren't simple enough.

* Overall Rating - From the above factors we gave each package an overall rating.

To follow you will find our ratings for the top five products that can teach you how to go green. With each of our evaluations we did take the time to build each component that the book/video suggested, and in the process we converted a home.

I have many friends who have been bugging me to help them go green. Over a two month period of time (working on the weekends), that's exactly what I did. They paid for the parts and put in most of the work, I paid for the learning materials and helped them along the way.

The clear winner from our evaluations was Green Power Easy, but the other four products that made the top five didn't fair too badly either.

I enjoy hearing stories from others who have worked to choose the environmentally friendly route to power their homes.

To saving money and the environment,

Miller Britzke

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OUR TOP PICK FOR GOING GREEN

Green Power Easy

#1 Rated Alternative Energy Site for 2010

The clear winner from our evaluations was Green Power Easy. This learning package was developed by Peter and Jennifer Lowe, and it is the most well put together green package that we tested.

When you buy Green Power Easy you will immediately be able to download the packaged. Included is the manual, blueprints, and how-to videos that make learning this one simple.

The focus of this package is on converting your home to either wind or solar power or both. Most importantly it focuses on how to accomplish this for very little cost. All of the parts that Green Power Easy recommends will be available locally (they were for us), and most of the pieces we needed came from our hardware store.

You'll also get recommendations on how to get deep-cycle batteries for free. Generating power is one thing, but storing it is also important. With free batteries, lower cost of parts, and the learning material, we were able to do an entire home conversion without a huge outlay of cash.

This package laid out everything for us from how to build a single solar panel to how to create a grid of batteries to store that power. With the addition of the Green Power Easy TV videos that is included, this package offers outstanding value, and makes converting your home simple.

Best of all, when we finished the conversion, the power generated by the system was enough that we were feeding power back to the power company, even during peak usage times.

For being the most complete package, that also worked better than the others we tested, we are giving this one the best-green-learning-package award: "Best For 2010."

Click Here to GO GREEN the EASY WAY

Highly Recommended

Earth 4 Energy

In second place we have an eBook package called Earth 4 Energy. Previously this one was in top spot, but with Green Power Easy coming to market it got beat out (by far).

The Earth 4 Energy package again consists of both eBooks and videos that work to teach you how to convert your home. The material is clearly laid out (although not quite as well as Green Power Easy) and the instructions are simple to follow.

When we tested the components that we built using this system the power generated by the solar panels and the windmill did match that of our winner.

The only complaint I had about this package was its focus. While Green Power Easy teaches you how to build and implement an alternative energy system for an entire home, this one focuses more on the individual components. It does get into converting the whole home, but it isn't explained as well as with our winner.

Click Here to convert your home

Highly Recommended

Home Made Energy

In third place we have Home Made Energy. Overall this package is worth the money you spend to get it, but it just isn't written as well as our top two picks.

The Home Made Energy package again consists eBooks and videos that work to teach you how to convert your home. The material is fairly well laid out, but the images lack a little compared to Green Power Easy.

You will be able to build solar panels, or build wind turbines with Home Made Energy, but you wouldn't be able to perform a whole home conversion. If your only purpose is to build a single panel/turbine to supplement your homes energy requirements, I may suggest this one.

Even then though, the images/videos in Green Power Easy are better. And, with the availability of Green Power Easy TV, Home Made Energy is simply lacking in content compared to the top pick.

Click Here to convert your home

Also Recommended

Energy 4 Green

The third product on our list is Energy 4 Green. This one isn't a bad product, but it didn't fair as well as the first two on our list. I think that this one failed mostly because of the way things are explained.

Energy 4 Green uses the same types of parts, and suggests some of the same methods to build, but they don't explain how to put it together as well. Eventually we did get it all together, and it worked but it wasn't simple.

When we used this one to convert a home I helped my friend get started, and then he worked to build more of the solar panels we required. He ended up having to buy extra parts to make them work, and the power generated in the end didn't quite match that of the first two.

All in all this one isn't bad. The home did get converted, and it is generating enough power to run the entire home, but simply for easy of learning I would recommend the first two learning packages before Energy 4 Green.

Click Here to convert your home

Also Recommended

Power 4 Home

Taking fourth place we have Power 4 Home. Again this one didn't fair too badly for power generation, but we had some other problems that put it in fourth.

The biggest problem with this one is the way the material is taught. All of the first three products on our list included both eBook and video components to make learning simpler.

With power 4 home, everything is laid out in written format. Now don't get me wrong, I love to read, but the absence of the videos did make it more difficult to learn what we were supposed to do.

In the end we did get a home converted, and our efforts generated enough power to keep it off the grid, but this one took longer than the others.

Another problem we had with this one was the products that they suggested we use. Instead of parts that can be found locally, power 4 home suggests a supplier list. This did drive the costs of every component up.

On their sales page they did state that you could create a windmill or a solar panel for less than $200, but if we had followed their part guide, we wouldn't have been able to.

Click Here to convert your home

Where to go from here? Use the link below to to start learning going green with our top pick.

Click here to Get Our Top Pick for 2010