Electricity bills have been getting more expensive for many years but it has now got to the level where power is now a major element in the household budget. The rising cost of electricity together with the climate warming problems created by burning fossil fuels, is encouraging more people to think green and explore the possibility of building their own renewable power source.

Making your own solar panels or a wind turbine is very tempting but how realistic is it? Can a self build solar panel or home made wind turbine really make a practical change to a normal household power bill? Or are they just wishful thinking and urban myths?

There are lots of factors that affect the answers to these questions. The answer will depend on where you live and how far you wish to go with your home power system.

One of the primary factors that impacts the effectiveness of DIY solar panels will be the exposure that your house has to the sun. It is easy to see that a log cabin deep in the heart of a forest is not going to gain much from a solar panel! So check the travel of the sun over your house, how many hours of direct sun does your house get? The encouraging news is that most homes should not have any trouble in getting enough sunlight to create electricity from a DIY solar panel.

The same logic is true when thinking about a home made wind turbine; you will need wind to turn it! In most places the wind cannot be relied upon as the only source of power--it simply fills in the spaces left by solar power quite nicely. Luckily when the sun stops shining the wind tends to blow.

The quantity of power that can be created from a DIY power set up will be a product of the size and nature of the devices being used.

Solar panels which produce electricity are also known as 'photovoltaic cells' or 'solar pv modules' The amount of electricity that you can expect to achieve from a solar panel is calculated by surface size and weight and usually will lie between 5 and 50 watts, although many cells can easily be linked together. Any excess electricity that is created can be stored in batteries for use at a later time.

The power that can be generated from a DIY wind turbine is derived from the square of the blade diameter (double the diameter and you get 4 times the power) and the cube of the wind speed (double the wind speed and you get 8 times the power). Although you can't choose the wind speed, you can select the blade diameter. Typical home wind turbines will have a diameter of around 6-8 feet and a typical home power system would be capable of creating 1 - 6 kilowatts with a wind speed of about 6-10miles per hour.

A home power system consisting of a DIY wind turbine and solar panel is not only achievable but very practical. With a bit of research it is possible to find plans for constructing DIY wind turbines and solar panels and these do not demand any great degree of skill or unusual tools. In fact, all of the parts are readily obtained from local sources and the whole building stage shouldn't take more than a couple of weekends.

Is it possible for a DIY home power system save you money, yes it certainly can. Either you can feed electric items in your house directly from the free renewable electricity, or if you are able to link your home built power system to the power grid then you can sell your electricity to your power company.

Home power generation is not only a fact; it is an easy way to reduce your power bills. Who knows, maybe all houses will have a renewable energy source in the future.