Are DIY Solar Panel Guides Scams? A Quick Caution For Newbies

This is another guest article from the authors of EnergyInformative.org

Since the market of solar power has exploded the last decade or so, the market for selling DIY guides and eBooks has taken root. They usually offer to teach you how to generate your own free electricity by sourcing components yourself for a few hundred bucks (if you buy their guide of course). Are these DIY guides actually holding their promises or is it all just a scam? Let’s dig in deeper.

Beware Newbies

First of all, the technology behind photovoltaics is not something simple. Before embarking on a DIY solar project, you should at least have some basic knowledge on electrical components.

Electricity is Dangerous

If you don’t know what you’re doing you could end up being electrocuted, which worst case means death. Think twice before you decide to go the DIY route.

Cheap Components Lead to Poor Results

The components that are recommended in these guides are of poor quality in order to lower the prices. This very likely leads to a bad performing solar panel, delivering a tiny power output and lasts nowhere near the 25-year warrant that most professional solar panels carry.

If you want to learn more about why cheap components often lead to poor results, go to EnergyInformative.

No Certification – No Access to the Power Grid

Another very important thing to consider is that if you want the solar panel to be anywhere near cost-effective, you need to be connected to the grid. If you’re not, you’re technically off-grid, meaning that you can’t sell excess electricity back to the utility company through net metering.

Proper certification requires months and thousands of dollars. You can get it, but it’s going to push you even further away in terms of costs.

There is nothing wrong with the way that the guides themselves, but rather the way they are marketed: The Internet marketers are diluting the search engines (Google) with spammy links to build their authority and rank for key terms in the industry. This unfortunately, leads people to buy their highly questionable DIY projects, instead of turning them to honest solar panel manufacturers and installers.

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