Any good DIY Solar and Wind power books?

Can someone direct me to some good DIY Solar and Wind power books.

I want to make my own solar panels and wind turbines, as I know it will be a lot cheaper than buying them, but I need some books. Can someone link me to a few PDF files? I'd be very grateful for your help...

 

So, you can dope silicon panels with boron and make photovoltaic cells?

hell of a workshop you've got there mate.

 

No, I was thinking getting the photovoltaic cells, instead of complete solar panels...

 

Making your own solar panels probably won't be cost effective. There have been a few websites were people got rejected panels from manufacturers and made their own panels-try searching google-but you won't get them for free anymore and the cost per watt will be real high.

Now you could buy some blades from an existing wind turbine company (they sell replacements) and you could affix them to an alternator. You would have a hard time making blades that 'grabbed' the wind effectively.

 

You can make a decent squirrel cage with PVC, but it depends on your wind speed, altitude, and temperature (air density) and not everyone wants a squirrel cage (they're ugly)

 

sierra solar dot com, has, or had, i haven't looked in a while, a whole section on books.
they're just one of several suppliers and contractors in the area where i live.
they carry just about every kind of photovoltic panel on the market, along with all the necessary hardware to go with them. also, wind, micro-hydro and solar thermal, for grid tied and off grid systems both, even low voltage/current appliances. pretty much everything for alternative energy living, along with a really good selection of books and reference materials.

then there's an outfit called plan-it solar, which is really on one of several, solar contractors. that's here in northern california. i'm sure other parts of the country and the world have simular. probably not EVERYplace, but a LOT of places.

 

If you are looking into alternative energy sources, the first book everyone should start with is Mother Earth News Handbook to Homemade Power.

http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Homemade-Power-Mother-Earth/dp/B000HUROMA"]http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Homemade-Power-Mother-Earth/dp/B000HUROMA


It covers wood heat and wood power, water/hydroelectric power, RAM-pumps, wind power, solar energy and methane.

With no other books, you could build yourself all the power devices you need, usually from scrap or next to it.

The first wind generator I helped build (around age 12) was built directly from this book and powered our tv and radio plus a couple of small lights when I was growing up off-grid.

 

I found a site that gives step by step DIY information on building solar panels and wind turbines. Check it out im sure it will help you alot.

http://diysolar4earth.com

 

SICK! I hope I can get a torrent for that! (I'm pretty broke.)

Wood? Sick, there is a lot of dead trees where I'm going! (Damn it's dry here ATM, worst drought in 130 years!)

 

I need something I don't have to pay for, as I have trouble accessing credit cards and money.

 

I've never found a torrent for the book, good luck on it...

You would be better off looking at used book stores and such or finding someone who will buy it for you as a gift though, because the book is amazing to have.

On the subjects of torrents though, do a search for "Mother Earth News 1970 - 2000"

 

I don't know if you are still around-but here is an excellent tutorial-

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/02/assemble_your_own_solar_panel.html

 

And heres a few really useful books available for download via google I posted a lil' while ago. The info is old as dirt, but s far as covering the extraction of essential oils (Base for bio-diesel) and wood alcohol, making a charcoal kiln suitable to reclaim Wood Alcohol (Raw Methanol basically) as well as charcoal for cooking and heating as well as a ton of other useful things one might find a use for in remote locations or in a homesteading scenario.

http://www.hipforums.com/newforums/showthread.php?t=389747&f=327

And be sure to check through the listings of related books as there are many, many other useful titles who's copyrights have expired and are available for free on google books in pdf format.

Granted that the book's I've listed are industrial chemistry related, but they were also written back in an era where industrial chemistry was still pretty much a cottage industry just before the industrial revolution so the language and concepts in the books should be fairly easy to grasp, even by victims of the Amerikan edgimicational sistim

And while on the D.I.Y. topic, anyone interested should really have a peek at
http://cd3wd.com/

It's a freaking huge database of DIY info geared towards helping 3rd world communities and developing nations become more self sufficient and is similarly suitable towards homesteaders.
13 GB of PDF files in all and still growing.
Downloadable in 44 individual zip files or through a torrent they have linked on their site.
Covers all sorts of topics, Agriculture, Animal husbandry, simple industrial processes for cottage industries, self sufficiency topics like digging wells, generating your own power, etc, etc, etc. Just a few lifetimes of information to absorb but really useful stuff...

I'll warn ya' now, the torrent doesn't have many seeds and I would strongly urge anyone with the extra upload capacity to help out by grabbing and seeding (Been downloading for a month now, 5 hours a day and I'm only at 75% complete).

This is the sort of stuff the Internet was intended for, free and open exchange of information. :cheers2: