Powers4Life Review

In these days of rising electricity cost, rising gasoline prices, rising costs of home heating oil and natural gas, rising costs of almost all kinds of energy, one of the few bright spots is that the cost of renewable energy such as solar and wind power is coming down.

What’s more, renewable energy lends itself to being produced right at home, through domestic solar panels on the roof or wind turbines for the home in the back yard (or a combination of the two).

It’s even possible to build your own solar panels or DIY wind turbine and install them yourself, thus saving thousands of dollars on a home energy system and so installing one that will pay for itself in a short time through savings on your electric bill.

Naturally, a number of web sites have sprung up offering information on how to do this. One such web site, covering both solar and wind systems, is Powers4Life (powers4life.com).

Looking at the site, the first thing one notices is that it’s not as colorful and glitzy as many other sites erected for the same purpose. However, what it offers is essentially the same: guidance and help in making your own renewable energy, for a price of $29.

One claim made by Powers4Life is slightly misleading, although factually accurate: that a solar panel or wind turbine can be made for less than $200. That’s technically correct (if anything it’s overstating the cost), but one can easily get the impression that an entire solar or wind energy system can be installed for that price sufficient to meet all your energy needs and stop sending money to the power company. That is not correct (nor is it explicitly claimed).

More than one solar panel or wind turbine would be necessary to achieve energy independence, and the panels or turbines would need to be incorporated into a complete home-energy system that includes (for solar power) a way to convert direct to alternating current, and for either type of energy regulators, connection to your home electric wiring, and either a grid-tie system that lets you use net metering to sell energy to the power company for a credit or else a battery-based storage system letting you go completely off-line.

You are almost certainly looking at two or three thousand dollars for such a complete system, more or less depending on your home’s energy consumption. But that is still far less than you would pay to have a contractor install the system, and will be paid for within a few years through reduced (or eliminated) electricity bills.

Another thing that’s usually downplayed by such offerings (and Powers4Life is no exception) is the amount of work involved.

It isn’t difficult to make a solar panel, but it is time consuming and requires individually wiring and soldering each solar cell, of which quite a lot are required to produce each panel. In all cases, it’s a question of whether the money saved is worth the time required; however, the money that can be saved is quite substantial, so for many people it is a good investment of time.

Powers4Life offers its information on a money-back-guarantee basis, using Clickbank to handle the transaction, which means that your money will be held in escrow for two months and returned to you if you request. This removes the element of risk.

The information offered appears to be a complete guideline for making and installing a home solar or wind power system, including not only making the solar panels or wind turbines, but also how to find materials and tools, how to implement a home energy system with grid-tie (including negotiating with the power company), and a guide to maintaining the system after it’s installed.

For that reason, it looks like something that should be looked into for anyone interested in making their own renewable energy.