Comments on: Solar energy- does anyone know of a DIY way to make a solar collector and transfer that energy to batteries? http://simplehomesolarenergy.com/solar-energy-advantages/solar-energy-does-anyone-know-of-a-diy-way-to-make-a-solar-collector-and-transfer-that-energy-to-batteries/ Thu, 22 Jul 2010 17:16:14 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: roderick_young http://simplehomesolarenergy.com/solar-energy-advantages/solar-energy-does-anyone-know-of-a-diy-way-to-make-a-solar-collector-and-transfer-that-energy-to-batteries/comment-page-1/#comment-145 roderick_young Sat, 03 Oct 2009 16:00:41 +0000 http://simplehomesolarenergy.com/solar-energy-advantages/solar-energy-does-anyone-know-of-a-diy-way-to-make-a-solar-collector-and-transfer-that-energy-to-batteries/#comment-145 If your goal is to save money, it will be hard to do that with solar electricity. You can come out ahead under some circumstances, but powering a refrigerator and a fan is an unlikely one. However, if your goal is to learn about this kind of setup, you could get a kit from (say) Harbor Freight for a few hundred dollars, which will (barely) charge a car battery over a period of a couple weeks. The energy you collect could power a fan for several hours. You could also learn about solar electricity just by searching the web. That way, you don't need to spend any money at all. Our solar setup is documented at http://www.angelfire.com/ca2/roderick/solar/photovoltaic.html That said, there are ways you can save money on energy. A solar hot water heater usually pays for itself over time, depending on where you live. You can buy a kit to retrofit your existing water heater for perhaps $2000 or so. Also, if your refrigerator is old, just changing to a new, extremely efficient model can save 1/3, maybe even 2/3 of the energy. If your goal is to save money, it will be hard to do that with solar electricity. You can come out ahead under some circumstances, but powering a refrigerator and a fan is an unlikely one. However, if your goal is to learn about this kind of setup, you could get a kit from (say) Harbor Freight for a few hundred dollars, which will (barely) charge a car battery over a period of a couple weeks. The energy you collect could power a fan for several hours.

You could also learn about solar electricity just by searching the web. That way, you don’t need to spend any money at all. Our solar setup is documented at

http://www.angelfire.com/ca2/roderick/solar/photovoltaic.html

That said, there are ways you can save money on energy. A solar hot water heater usually pays for itself over time, depending on where you live. You can buy a kit to retrofit your existing water heater for perhaps $2000 or so.

Also, if your refrigerator is old, just changing to a new, extremely efficient model can save 1/3, maybe even 2/3 of the energy.

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