Do-It-Yourself Generators and Choosing the Right Backup Generators for your Home
It takes a set of all-around skills to maintain the electrical efficiency and safety of your home. While there are some repair and item prospecting aspects which you can do on your own, there would also be crucial instances where the service of a professional is much more necessary. This is why aside from practicing your repair skills, you’ll also need to have an expert electrician on stand-by for jobs which require more electrical proficiency.
At times, we all need a reality check when it comes to seeing which types of jobs are best meant for professionals to take care of. There really are DIY projects which can be harmful when done on our own. It’s important to have a scrutinizing eye to identify the projects which pros must handle.
First seen on: (http://www.survivopedia.com/diy-power-generator/)
The ultimate goal of every respectable prepper is to get off the grid completely and live a free, happy and fulfilling life, enjoying nature and the abundance offered by nature, without being dependent upon government agencies for survival.
There’s a tiny little problem with this utopia: energy. If you’re accustomed with 21’st century every-day conveniences, like reading this article from your computer over the internet, you already know what I’m talking about.
Until we discover a cheap and easy way of producing free and endless energy, we’ll never be free to do whatever we like with our lives.
1. How to DIY a Power Generator Using Photovoltaic Panels
You probably already know about the Solyndra scandal and the epic fail of generating electricity in a big way using tons of solar panels and heavy subsidies from taxpayers money.
However, photovoltaic panels are actually an excellent alternative for producing small amounts of energy in a decentralized system (like your home or your place of business) as opposed to using them on a massive scale..
Solar power generation has its limitations and if you’re a power-hungry household you should look elsewhere. Obviously, for the project to succeed you must live in a “sunshine state” or area and also you should be able to afford buying the photovoltaic panels (B-grade types are cheaper and just as good), the batteries, the controllers, inverters and the rest of the gear.
2. How to DIY a Portable Solar Generator
The best thing about this project is that it will cost you almost one third if you compare it with commercial versions (which cost ~$400 and don’t include photovoltaic panels!) and it works just as well. The parts required for the assembly are available online on amazon.com and you can build it according to your own needs and specs, i.e. as big and as heavy as you like it or need it.
3. How to DIY a Power Generator from a Five Gallon Bucket
I think I already told you about the endlessly cool applications involving five gallon plastic buckets and I mentioned this idea about a power generator in a recent article.
However, you must remember that the plastic bucket serves just as the box, the recipient for the actual power generator. It’s just the shell, the casing, the chassis. You got the idea, right?
Basically, this five gallon plastic bucket power generator was invented and patented by a great guy named Sam Redfield and it’s relatively easy to build if you’re following the steps and materials detailed in here.
This is an experimental power generator aimed for helping people living in third world countries in which energy is scarce. It requires a steady flow of water, i.e. 26 gallons per minute. It’s essentially a pico-hydro system (meaning tiny).
4. How to DIY a Power Generator from a Lawnmower
The idea behind using a lawnmower for generating power is pretty straight forward. It’s like a regular power generator; you know, the ones running on diesel or gasoline engines? Well, the concept is just the same, but instead of a regular power gen unit, you’ll be using your good old lawn mower as the hamster running on the wheels for generating power.
This is a relatively easy DIY project if you’re familiar with electrical components and engines. Also you can save lots of $ by cruising recycling centers and junkyards to pick up the required parts.
5. How to DIY aPower Generator from a Washing Machine
The concept is to use a flowing stream of water as the power source for the “turbine” and the internal components of the washing machine as hardware for the generator + a battery and an inverter. It’s an excellent project for generating free electricity from scrap, but you’ll need a bit of skill and hard work (with almost zero investments except elbow grease!).
This is by far my favorite DIY power generating project and the most efficient and reliable in terms of “best bang for the buck”.
6. How to DIY a Power Generator from a Bicycle
Below there’s a video with the tutorial but keep in mind that power generating using your muscles is not a “solution” for living off grid. I would regard it as an “exercise” for the real thing, like training for real combat with rubber knives and that sort of thing.
7. How to DIY a Power Generator from a Wind Turbine
