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Electricity bills have been constantly rising for a long time but it has now got to the level where power is now a major part in the household budget. The increasing cost of power in conjunction with the climate warming problems created by burning fossil fuels, is encouraging more people to think about the environment and think about the possibility of building their own renewable power source.

Constructing your own solar panels or a wind generator is very tempting but how realistic is it? Can a home made solar panel or DIY wind generator really produce a noticeable difference to a normal household power bill? Or are they just wishful thinking and marketing hype?

There are many factors that affect the answers to these questions. The impact will be a product of where you live and how far you wish to go with your DIY power station.

One of the primary factors that impacts the output of DIY solar panels will be the exposure that your house has to the sun. It is easy to see that a log cabin deep in the depth of a forest is not going to gain much from a solar panel! So check the travel of the sun over your house, how many hours of direct sun does your house get? The good news is that most houses should not have any trouble in getting enough sunshine to generate electricity from a DIY solar panel.

The same logic is true when thinking about a DIY wind generator; you will need wind to turn it! In most places the wind cannot be trusted as the only source of power--it simply fills in the spaces left by solar power quite nicely. Luckily when the sun stops shining the wind normally blows.

The amount of power that can be generated from a DIY power set up will be a product of the size and nature of the devices being used.

Solar panels which generate electricity are also known as 'photovoltaic cells' or 'solar pv modules' The amount of power that you can expect to achieve from a solar panel is worked out from the surface size and weight and typically will lie between 5 and 50 watts, although many cells can easily be linked together. Any excess power that is created can be stored in batteries for use at a later time.

The energy that can be generated from a home built wind generator is obtained from the square of the blade diameter (double the diameter and you get 4 times the power) and the cube of the wind speed (double the wind speed and you get 8 times the power). Although you can't order the wind speed, you can select the blade diameter. Normal home wind turbines will have a diameter of around 6-8 feet and a typical home power system would be capable of outputting 1 - 6 kilowatts with a wind speed of about 6-10miles per hour.

A home power power station consisting of a DIY wind generator and solar panel is not only achievable but extremely practical. With a bit of investigation it is possible to find plans for constructing DIY wind generators and solar panels and these do not demand any great degree of skill or unusual tools. In fact, all of the components are easily obtained from local sources and the whole building stage shouldn't take more than a couple of weekends.

Is it possible for a DIY home power station save you money, yes it certainly can. Either you can power electric items in your house directly from the free renewable power, or if you are able to connect your home built power system to the power grid then you can offer your electricity to your power company.

Home generation of electricity is not only a reality; it is an easy way to reduce your power bills. Who knows, maybe all houses will have a renewable energy source in the future.

Visit www.my-ecopower.com and check out the plans that I used to construct my own low cost, easy to build domestic power station.