Tax Credits Are an Advantage to Building Your Own Solar Power
If you install solar water heating systems or photovoltaic systems in any fiscal year between 2006 and 2016 then you will qualify. There is also a $500 credit for home improvement, but that is totally separate. The tax credit is 30% of the cost of the units.
Installation of a small wind energy system has the same 30% tax credit. These systems must have been installed between fiscal year 2008 and 2016.
IRS Form 5695 is the form you will need. All the most popular computer based tax preparation programs will ask you about this in their survey section.
Purchasing solar power systems from manufacturers are still very expensive (disadvantage) and you may never be able to recoup the cost involved. Taking advantage of building your own solar power, with a little help from your friends, is still the way to go.
Plans for do it yourselfers are available on the Internet at very modest costs and can eliminate the huge front-end cost by building it yourself. But, you will still need professional help in attaching the system you build to your home’s electrical system.
Michael Harvey has the most popular set of do it yourself instructions. He shows you where to purchase the solar power cells for cheap and where to find some batteries for free (sounds like an advantage to me.)
In order to prove the system would work for anyone, Michael selected 11 different people with no particular building skills and let them use his manual. Their success was far beyond what Michael had anticipated. He wants you to have that same success so that you can join the growing number of people using solar power.
Another advantage of building solar power from a manual is that the process is fairly simple. You solder together the 2.5 volt solar cells until you get 12 volts. Then this solar panel will charge a battery. The battery connects to an inverter (yes, you will have to buy the inverter) and the inverter feeds your electrical appliances. This panel process can be done for under $200. You can price inverters at your local hardware store. I have seen similar panels online costing around $1500.
String enough of them together and you could eventually get totally off the grid and start selling energy to the electric company. A disadvantage is I don’t think that this is totally realistic for most people, but the possibility is there.
Last advantage to using Michael’s manual to make solar power is that he will send you updates to the manual as things change and or improve. Michael really wants you to be successful at building your own solar power.
You can find the advantages (not disadvantages) of building your own solar power at Earth4Energy.com.
