Why Should You Go Green?
There are economic reasons and environmental reasons for living off the grid. Obviously, saving money on energy bills is the primary reason many choose to fund their own alternative energy program. There is no better feeling knowing that you are generating your own electricity with something you made yourself, and helping the environment in the process. There are many forms of alternative energy; wind and solar power are by far the most common and easiest solutions for the average homeowner. If you are considering an alternative energy source for your home or business then this is a good place to start.
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The Efficient Planet guide consists of 3 parts. The first part is 71 pages of instruction on how to build a solar panel, and then there are 51 pages on how to build a wind powered generator. The third part of the guide is around 50 pages of ideas for creating a more energy efficient living environment in your home. Such common-sensicle things like leaving the oven door open after you cook to help heat an area, types of lightbulbs to use, etc and so on. Since it's launch last year, sales of the Efficient Planet guide have been lackluster at best. If you look around on the internet you are going to see a LOT of reviews on this product; and most are just hyped up nonsense from people who have never even seen the product. However, we DO have a copy of this product and we are going to give you our honest opinion of it. What we liked Efficient planet does offer a fairly comprehensive set of instructions and diagrams as well as some bonus material such as the 50 page guide on efficient living. There are also some audio and video interviews with a few fellow Do it Yourselfers that have constructed their own solar and wind power projects. Some other included bonuses which seem rather irrelevant are 'Project Wealthy' which is a kit that teaches you how to run your own efficient home business, and something called" Deregulated Tactics" . Both include some audio and video segments as well. There are a couple of other bonuses that you will receive that are completely unrelated to renewable energy, but you may find them useful if you ever decide to create a website of your own someday. As we said, the first part of the guide is about solar power, and how to make your solar panels at home. But it goes a bit farther and talks about other solar power options, such as solar thermal heating and solar roofing. It contains a fair amount of diagrams and was easy to follow. The second volume focuses solely on wind power and how to build a wind powered generator. It also discusses 10 common myths about wind power. The third part is basically just an efficiency guide which shows you how to save money every day by doing little things to save energy. Although a lot of this is common knowledge, many of us don't practice this on a daily basis. If you follow most of the advice in this part of the guide, you will probably recoup the cost of the entire guide within a month or two.
What we didn't like. * No video instruction * Even though we liked the Efficient Planet guide, it fell short of what Earth4Energy and GreenDIYenergy offered by not providing any video tutorials. Since a lot of us tend to struggle with simple print instructions, some videos would be useful. We contacted the owner of Efficient PLanet who informed us that there are no current plans to incorporate videos into the materials. So, is it just another DIY renewable energy guide? Yes, Efficient Planet is just another diy renewable energy guide. And it seems that there are more of them popping up almost every week. And when it is all said and done, it gives you basically the same information as the other renewable energy guides we reviewed, but without the videos. They give you a lot of bonus material, even though most of it has nothing to do with renewable energy. Efficient Planet does in fact offer a comprehensive set of instructions to build a solar panel or wind powered generator, but unlike the other guides we looked at, it comes up a bit short without the video modules that Earth4Energy and GreenDIYenergy offer. The bonuses do make it decent value, even without the videos. So it gets our #3 rating overall.
Our verdict
Price $49.97
Our rating. 3 of 5 starsVisit the Efficient Planet Site