Making ingenious DIY energy projects at home may demand time and money but they will also give you benefits that more than compensate for their relatively minor expense.
Let's face it, the answer to the energy crisis everyone is experiencing now may be the harnessing of free resources found in nature.
This raw power of sunlight, wind, rain, tides and other sources is abundant and can be collected and used by everyone.
The internet has vast resources for making DIY energy projects that are open to the public and are often free.
Materials, procedures and even how-to-do-it videos are shown making it a lot easier for aspirants to created their own DIY energy plants.
Gone are the days when this field solely belong to the geniuses; even elementary students are now experimenting on their own inventions.
It is definitely helpful to know some of the basics of converting renewable resources before getting into the challenge of making your own DIY energy system.
Firstly, you cannot create energy, you can only convert what has been there all along.
The good news is, one can find free inexhaustible power everywhere.
An example would be the sun giving off its solar power.
It's amazing how abundant it is that compared with human consumption; the solar power surplus would be 20,000 times what is currently used world wide.
This solar contribution can be made available by collecting it through solar panels in your own DIY power project, especially now that the home improvement stores and the internet offer solar panel kits for sale.
These kits are easier and faster to form because of the pre-made components, as opposed to starting from scratch.
Each panel contains solar cells that have the ability to absorb some of the sunlight.
This light is composed of small units called photons.
When these minute 'elements' are absorbed by the cells in the panel, they make the panel surface positively charged and its underside negatively charged.
This creates a voltage potential like what is found in a battery.
The electrical energy is then stored in a DC battery until it is used.
It is typically passed through an inverter to be converted into AC electricity for final home consumption.
The solar source can already fulfill all power needs of humankind and still there are other vast natural resources waiting to be tapped.
Government and enterprising individuals are now trying to find a way to develop and deliver the technology to every home with prices that can be easily afforded.
Kids may find it fun to try collecting power at home with easy to do DIY energy projects.
In general terms the most popular projects would be solar, wind and biomass converters.
Some simple easy-to-do projects found on the internet are a small handwashing solar heater, and garden or solar shed lights.
Some environmentally conscious individuals want to go 'eco-friendly' by using such things as green automobile fuels.
There are many green resources, and some of the best known are anaerobic digestion, geothermal, wind, hydro, solar, biomass, tidal and wave power.
The fast changing global warming phenomenon, added with the hike in oil price is starting to produce new legislation to encourage the use of alternative power sources.
Some villages are already using power generators tapping the world's free resources to make electricity available to the locals in the area.
Collecting and using natural renewable and sustainable resources could be the answer to the current crisis, and may be implemented as a wonderful DIY energy home project.
Involving every member of the family in DIY energy supplies helps them become concerned and responsible citizens, in terms of both environmental and financial management.