“Don’t Buy Solar Panels, Make Your Own!” Bullshit!
Another scam on Facebook, “Don’t Buy Solar Panels – Make Your Own!” at mysolarplans.com is just another name for GreenDIYEnergy.com which is just another name for earth4energy.com…. which is, at worst, simply a scam, and at the least it is VERY misleading; you can’t make your own solar electric PV panels from components you find at the hardware store… not without smashing up a set of garden lights or something anyway, and if you did that you would not end up with a decent size, efficient, usable system, let alone anything comparable to a system at “$27,000 average cost”.
Making solar thermal, solar water heating, panels is something you can do yourself, DIY. Again, you won’t get wonderfully high efficiencies, but it is possible to do and if you live somewhere with plenty of sun then you can make a decent amount of hot water. This information is available for free on the internet and there are some good books on the subject too from reputable book sellers such as CAT / The Center For Alternative Technology (note that while these guys do sell books on making your own wind turbines and making your own solar water heating panels they don’t sell books on how to make your own solar electric PV panels… this is because it can’t be done DIY).
If you are looking to save money on electricity and energy bills then there is a lot of good information out there on how to reduce your consumption. Whatever you do don’t waste your money on this “Don’t Buy Solar Panels, Make Your Own!” crap.
Much more detailed examination is here – http://www.nlcpr.com/Deceptions6.php
rick:
its nice to know there people out there like yourself looking out for the rest of us, thanx for the info on the solar panel scam , i will be contacting the cat centre soon , thank you rt pheby uk
11 November 2009, 2:38 pmfrank rose:
thanks for info.i was planning on purchasing book. saw it on facebook. thanks again
8 January 2010, 4:25 amJim:
Thanks for the info. I HATE SCAMS!!!!!!
10 January 2010, 4:24 amzach:
I have to take issue with this post. I’ve personally purchased and used the guide from greendiyenergy, and it is actually legit. You get videos that follow the host as he makes his own solar panel, and he walks you through the whole process. Most of the stuff you can get at the hardware store, but you do have to buy photovoltaic cells online or at a specialty store, but it’s not a big deal. They’re cheap online.
You’re right about it not being comparable to a system costing $25,000 or whatever, but green diy never claims that. they show you how to build 1 large solar panel for about $150, and you can build as many of them as you want.
You won’t eliminate your energy bill, but you will cut a percent out of it.
Before you blast this product, you should probably evaluate it yourself instead of making assumptions.
18 January 2010, 9:24 pmJon:
Zach
You could buy cheap low quality solar cells on the Internet (but this is not buying them at your local hardware store as the website claims) and solder them together to make a crap and inefficient solar electric panels if you like… no need to buy the ebook, you you can find videos on how to do all of this on Youtube for free.
The system you would make is not comparable to a proper solar system worth $25,000 (as is clearly claimed on the website) and I don’t see how it is not going to save you one penny on your electricity bill.
An analogy may be that you can’t make a Lamborghini from a ride-on lawn mower, just because it has an engine and four wheels does not make it the same thing.
18 January 2010, 10:59 pmNunya Farken:
Here’s a simple test on this shite scam.
First, calculate the cost of building your DIY solar system.
Next, install and run the system, measure how much commercial power you save per week, month, whatever.
Next, calculate how many years it will take for the power “saved” to equal the cost of your instaled system.
You will be wearing a grey beard long before you recover the cost of your system.
23 May 2010, 2:24 amMichael Beaudoin:
Simple math: decent solar cells cost at least $10 per watt. I don’t know where this guy gets them for less but to make a decent 70 watt panel should cost at least $700. If he is genuinely spending only $120 then the quality is crap. Like everything else, you get what you pay for. Solar panels need to be out in the sun, rain, snow, wind, whatever for 10 years or more in order to make them worthwhile. Trying to do it on the cheap will only cost you more in the long run.
19 June 2010, 7:27 amAmple Energy:
Electricity from solar thermal collectors can any one tell me how?
3 April 2011, 12:31 pmCaleb Sanchez:
Youe a jock, this is not a scam my friend. Mysolarplans does not have anything too do with GreenDIYenenergy or Earth4energy. They are thier own company
6 May 2011, 1:22 pmPictsidhe:
This one will actually work, what you save in money you lose in quality, the panels won’t last as long as commercial ones due to the poor environmental sealing and will produce slightly less power due the cells being more thermally insulated from the air than sealed commercial units.
27 May 2011, 1:51 pmPictsidhe:
To add context, I wouldn’t bother to make one as described in here in Wales, but Western Austalia is dry enough for them to work a good few years.
2 June 2011, 1:55 ammgg:
Just listening to this guy – its clear his claims are completely bogus. I’d like to see his panels after a hail storm. Those cheap panels couldn’t possibly generate a house worth of power. Running meters backwards is illegal in most states (or they will not run backwards), you have to install a second meter that measures the back feed – and an automatic cut-off so your panels don’t back feed into a dead power system. The electronics required are not trivial and any so-called electrician knows all this. Anyone that ACTUALLY had a working “system”, wouldn’t have to spend 20 minutes feeding you bullshit about their system to sell it.
30 November 2011, 4:32 pmRUN from this guy.