Green Power Easy Review

GREEN POWER EASY REVIEW

Green power Easy DIY Altwernative Energy Guide

We were one of the lucky few to be able to get our hands on a preview copy of 'Green Power Easy' before the official launch date on October 26th, 2009.
This our in-depth review of Green Power Easy By Peter and Jennifer Lowe

The key part of Green power Easy is the e-book entitles The Easy DIY Guide to Solar and Wind Power. When you open this book the first  thing you notice is the detail into which Peter and Jennifer go.  From page one you get the feeling you are in good hands.

The first 8 sections take you on a  tour of alternative energy, explaining exactly what it is and the various types (ways of generating) of green electrical power.

The following 7 sections cover energy saving.  This is not always an obvious step for for people considering generating their own energy but it is crucial. Firstly you need to consider the bigger picture, I.e the planet. Reducing energy usage is just good sense. Even free energy should not be wasted. In practice the cost of your home green energy system will be directly related to the amount of power you consume so if you can reduce you power consumption before you start then your installation costs can be dramatically reduced.

The next three sections cover choosing the correct green energy solutions for you and the benefits and drawbacks of a DIY alternative energy system. This is an important section as we have heard of many people using these DIY alternative energy guides to produce impressive electricity generating systems that just didn't work in practice because the location or situation of the house was not suitable for the solution used.

The book then moves into the first practical instruction and contains and impressive 23 sections dedicated to building a solar panel. To say this part of the book is 'in-depth' is bit of an understatement. It takes you by the hand and leads through every process needed to build and mount a solar panel. It includes everything from, creating the weatherproof housing  through soldering the solar cells to assembling and mounting the finished solar panel.

The Green Power Easy guide, like most of it's competitors claim that you need no DIY skills at all and that this can all be done by anyone. While this true for the majority of people you may be the kind of person really can't put a shelf up! If this is you then you should think carefully before taking on any of the projects in this book. - or get a more able friend to help. Although extremely simple it does involve sawing, drilling, gluing, screwing and soldering. Even if you have never soldered before it should take about 10-15 minutes practice to gain enough proficiency to be able to join the solar cells. Just make sure you practice on some spare tab wire first – DON'T jump straight on the solar cells.  The biggest tip we can give you from our experience is to ensure everything you solder is cleaned with a very fine emery board (your wife's nail file) or very fine sanding paper.

The next part of the Green Power Easy book  contains 15 sections that takes you through building a wind generator. It covers the principles of wind powered electricity generation in details and describes exactly what each part does and how it works. It includes a full kit list and the tools required to complete the project.

Green Power Easy Alternative Energy Implemantation Guide

Where as the solar panel entails a significant amount of soldering and has no moving parts, the wind generator, on the other hand is a far more 'mechanical' challenge. This is clearly understood by the authors and they describe the detailed build in very easy terms. One of the main challenges in a wind generator is the blades. The whole project can live or die on the blade design, quality and balance. Green Power Easy brilliantly covers the production of the wind generator blades and shows you the best method for achieving a perfectly balanced blade assembly. The section concludes with the mounting pole and final installation of you wind generator.

The final sections of the Green Power Easy book cover the 'wiring up' and the electrical storage and control system.  This is an area where many of the other guides we have reviewed fall down. They give reasonable build instructions but when it comes to the intricate interconnection and control they skip over it. Giving less detail than is really needed to fully understand and more importantly build the units. Green Power Easy addresses this problem head on and has included the same level of detail here as in the rest of their alternative energy guide.

Each component is discussed in detail, in it's own section, including Array DC Disconnect, Charge Controller, Deep Cycle Batteries, System Meter/Controller, Main DC Disconnect, Inverter, Kilowatt per Hour Meter & Backup Power .  Don't be put off by the list, as I said everything is described in minute detail and a complete wiring overview and instructions are included. Although I have written a relatively short paragraph on this part of the Green power Easy book, it is one it's strengths that helped us choose Green Power Easy as our number one choice.

The penultimate 3 sections describe the system options. These are:

1.Portable or Autonomous power systems, i.e. smaller systems that are used to power one or more electrical appliances on their own electrical circuits.
2.Grid inter-tied, or integrated systems, i.e. a system that is electrically integrated into your home electricity wiring circuits along with your countries national power grid.
3.Off-Grid power systems, i.e. a completely autonomous power system relying 100% on green energy with no connection to the national power grid.

With the final 5 sections covering detailed wiring plans for all the various configurations including the connections into your homes breaker box.

Green Power Easy Alternative Energy Parts Guide

That concludes the review of the main book but a real plus with Green Power Easy is the inclusion of three further e-books. Don't consider these as bonus items, they are absolutely a crucial part of creating an alternative energy solution.

1.Green Power Easy Implementation Guide – Designing an Implementing Your Alternative Power Solution.
We recommend you read the main e-book first to get an understanding of the system overview, components and build requirements and then read this one. It is from here you will learn how to design and plan the right system for your particular home. Something some of the the other guides simply fail to address.

2.Parts Ordering Guide – The Easy Guide To Saving money On your Solar And Wind Power Parts.
This is 'exactly what it says on the tin'. An absolutely crucial part of building your green power system. This e-book tells you what you will need to spend on individual parts and allows you to set a budget for your project (anyone who has any experience with project management will know how important this is). It also gives you best and cheapest sources for your parts. I promise you will be amazed at just how cheaply you can obtain most the parts you need. Absolutely crucial especially if you plan to build a large alternative energy system.

Green Power Easy alternative Energy Rebates Guide

3.The final book offering is Green Power Easy Rebates Guide – Get Tax Rebates For Your Home Conversion And Save.
This e-book covers the rebates that are available in the various countries. These rebates can be a significant contribution to your energy cost reduction and in many cases what makes it possible to zero your energy bills.

Traditionally the authors have included what they call Green Power Easy TV. Unfortunately we were not able to review this prior to launch but we have been assured that this will be free to everyone who registers (simple first name and email address) at the Green Power Easy Website before the launch date on October 26th. You will also immediately receive a free 'Going Green' report.
Our expectation is that Green Power Easy TV will provide video guides to supplement the e-books. If they are as detailed and well thought out as the e-books then they will turn out to be real winners.

All in all we are convinced that Green Power Easy has created the definitive guide to DIY alternative energy. It has clearly learned from it's predecessors, filled the gaps that they left and produced an excellent product.  In our reviews we would normally raise any downsides of a product but in the case of Green Power Easy it has been hard to find any. As it has been reviewed prior to release we have not been able to see the whole product, namely the eagerly awaited Green Power Easy TV, which was a little disappointing. Although we have no reason to believe these will be of any less quality than the e-books.  So Green power Easy makes it into our number one spot easily pushing the previous product Earth 4 Energy into second place.

But don't just take our word for it! You can read an experts view by Miller Britzke (Alternative Energy Engineer) at An Experts Opinion and see the results of the top five products reviewed at Green Energy Guide Review.

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