HELP! How do you harness soalr energy?

On a bolonie budget does anyone know how to home make a solar energy system for a small cabin? I have no idea how to start but I need to make one. I do not expect to make one without buying some materials but I cannot afford to buy one already made and have it installed, I have do this on my own. Well my husband will help but you know what I mean. Has anyone made one for themselves successfuly?

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Are you trying to make electricity or just concerned about cutting down on overall energy use?
Never used one myself but the simplest and possibly cheapest way
to use solar energy is by installing a woodstove. Trees harvest energy from the sun and are a useful fuel to heat your house not to mention they are a renewable source of energy. If your heating a cabin you probably have tons of wood nearby that you can find cheap.

Photovoltaics produce electricity and sometimes you can find used
panels around. Maybe check ebay or craigslist.

reply to post by MagnumOverDrive


I am looking to provide electricity to the cabin. We will have a wood stove but not a wood cooking stove. I want to have electricity for a range, refridgerator, lamps, maybe a washer/dryer and regular household stuff like a blow dryer, vaccum, mixer. Oh and a couple of window air units in the summer.

[edit on 22-8-2009 by Melissa101]

you need to buy solar panels, they're expensive though. no other way to get electricity (unless your hubbie's an engineer and can invent a wood-powered generator )

This is what I found on the Tube, haven't tried it yet.

www.youtube.com...

reply to post by Melissa101


I found this cabin solar kits page....maybe it will help you to make a decision.

Cabin Solar Kits

reply to post by Melissa101


photovoltaics aint cheap either to buy a ready made panel or build your own if on a tight budget. however, as you have a woodburning stove in the cabin, if you have water, a better solution would be a mini-steam engine to drive something like a gym-treadmill motor

The best thing about these motors is their versatility...you can make them into a wind turbine using the 'Chispito' design, or if you are near a running brook that you can create a decent head of water, a hydro driven setup

The best place to start researching however is this place...quite possibly the most informative alt.power place on the internet. lots of projects, and a very knowledeable community board for any Q&A's

otherpower.com

fieldlines.com

the next consideration is a battery bank to store the power you produce, and then an inverter to turn the DC power into AC for appliances

if you read through the stuff on the two sites linked above before you spend any money, you'll have a good grounding on where to start