With the spiraling costs of electricity and the economic pressures most families find themselves under it’s no surprise that many of us are starting to take more interest in viable alternative energy sources. Solar power has for a long time been seen as the most viable of the current crop of alternative energy solutions. To make the process even more affordable there are now a number of diy (Do it yourself) guides that illustrate how you can build your own solar panels in your backyard with materials readily available from your local hardware store for between $100 and $200.

So just how easy is it build your own solar panels and just how effective are they when it comes to powering a residential home? Well the answer to both these questions required a bit of in-depth investigation.

There are now a number of do it yourself solar power kits you can purchase online. For our experiment we chose the most popular kit on the market. The kit comes with some preliminary material which provides an introduction on to just what solar energy is and how to generate your own solar power as well as listing the materials you will need to assemble to build your own solar panels. Detailed instructions are then provided. These step by step instructions are very clear and easy to follow, illustrating how to build a solar cell for under $100, how to build a casing to surround the cells and colored illustrations that show how to wire all the cells together. One thing we found to be invaluable was the guide we purchased came with a video series where you look over the shoulder of someone putting together their own panels, this made the entire process very easy, it’s one thing to try to follow an instruction guide but the whole process is so much clearer when you can then watch someone do it themselves.

Doing the manual work of putting the cells together is not as hard a task as you may think, I was expecting a complicated process but armed with my instruction guide it was almost child’s play, so much so I got my youngest son involved in the project. You don’t need to be a University graduate or be the world’s best handyman to successfully build your own solar panels. All you need is a spare weekend and a good guide to follow and you will have your solar panels built in no time.

Now for the real test, does it work? Well I’m pleased to report it does, these diy kits are becoming extremely popular for a reason and that is they save you a lot of money. We estimate that we are saving around 70% off our current power bill and as we add more panels we expect to reach the 80% claim the guides promote.

An added benefit of building your own solar panels is you will help reduce the carbon footprint being left on the earth and give the earth a chance to heal itself, solar energy is of course the cleanest, most renewable form of energy known to man, with pretty much no negative impacts on the environment.

As  a bonus the kit we purchased came with a number of resources including house wiring plans to wire your solar panels up to your house, a solar calculator, information in regards to solar credits and rebates that may be available to you and even plans to build your own windmill and wind power system to save even more money.

So what are you waiting for? Get to it and build your own solar panels, take a look at the following link for a side by side review of the leading diy guides, they are extremely inexpensive and very well made. DIY Solar Power Guides Reviewed