by Nationaal Archief

Is it now feasible to have home made electricity? The short answer is “yes”, but up until recently, all of the alternatives to commercial electricity were very expensive.

If you had a creek or small river running through your property you could dam it up and put together your own hydro power system. The ones I’ve heard of usually involve a cooperative of nearby landowners because of the high costs involved. Even after you get over the technological and financial hurdles though, there are still the water rights to worry about.

Two of the most common ways to make DIY electricity are by using solar power and/or wind power. Previously, these two alternative energies have been expensive too, with one solar panel or wind turbine costing two to five thousand dollars.

Fortunately, DIY electricity isn’t nearly as expensive because you can trade what is referred to as “sweat equity” for the dollars you would have spent if you bought solar panels or wind turbines that were already built.

There are now several companies that offer this alternative. They sell complete plans for making DIY electricity. These plans show you how you can build your own solar panels or wind turbines for less than a $ 200. outlay for parts, so you can see that your “sweat equity” is worth quite a bit in this case.

No matter how easy you make it for someone to build something though, there are always some people who are afraid to build or they don’t think they have enough time. A company called Earth4Energy has an interesting idea involving these people. They say that you could build several wind turbines in a week. You could then sell those turbines for $ 500.each. Your profit would be about $ 300.

per unit. This looks like a very interesting idea for a business.

The cost of electricity keeps going up. My electric company raised their rates last fall a full 14% even though oil prices were plummeting and the cost of everything else was dropping. It looks like DIY electricity would be a smart “sweat equity” investment for me and for many others that are tired of electric rates that only go up. I would be sticking it to my electric company, but I don’t mind; they’ve been sticking it to me for years. I believe that in 20 years, most houses will have either solar or wind power or both.