Earth 4 Energy: Missing Crucial Pieces of Information

At first glance this Earth 4 Energy membership is pretty cool, $50 and you get an e-book, online videos and access to other "green" resources.

Firs thing I did, since I'm a video person, was watch the videos. First of all there are only 2 videos. $50 for 2 videos. Doesn't seem like a good deal, but I'll watch them see how helpful they are. The videos are 2 parts of 1 video. "Joining Solar Cells." In this video they show you how to link individual solar cells together, it is pretty childishly simple...but how can that be a bad thing. So I move on.
So I start reading the e-book, the first chapter had 4 spelling errors in it, which sort of turned me off but I pushed on. I then read about how you can use the information in the book to make a "Solar-Powered Generator," which is basically like a portable generator powered by the sun. Pretty awesome if you ask me.

The first half of the e-book shows diagrams and describes how you can get cheap solar panels, sometimes free if they are broken. Broken? No problem the book will tell me how to fix them. So I skim on towards the end and find out that the rest of the book tells you how to make the same thing but using wind power.

Sweet. I scroll back to the beginning and see how I can get my Solar-powered project started. Allright so step 1, I got to ebay and look for broken solar cells, pretty simple, searching for "broken solar cells," ooooh a auction of 50 for $25 thats an amazing deal, but they are broken...oh yeah let me see how the book says to fix them...scrolling.....scrolling....scrolling...uhhhhh....where is that part at?

There is no section of the book to show you how to fix the broken solar cells. At the end of the solar cell chapter they tell you in their examples they are going to use unbroken solar cells to demonstrate. Thats wonderful, so much for the entire previous chapters which say to get broken solar cells.

So all in all, I'm pretty disappointed, I mean there is a lot of information in here, but its nothing I haven't found already such browsing the net for other solar projects.

In the end, I actually might get some use out of it, its not totally a rip off, I found an auction on ebay for 50 unbroken solar panels for $120 that sounds pretty good. I'll bid on them.

Hopefully the next time I post I'll have some solar cells to play with.

Going Off the Grid: Part #1:

Our energy bill each month for a 3 bedroom house with minimal power usage is $350-400 a month. We try to save by leaving lights off and usually just make due with the natural fill from the sky lights. Our biggest power-suckers are our Stove (which is range), our Dryer, our Water Heater and our Air Conditioner. In the cooler months, our air is turned on maybe one day out of the month and it reduces our power bill probably by half.


I currently just purchased a Earth 4 Energy Membership which gives me access to Solar-Powering tips and techniques to get your home off the grid. Unfortunately we're renting this house, I mean I prefer it because-well when things break I don't have to have the money to fix them. No money is one of the big reasons I am trying to cut down on these energy costs in the first place...along with the whole pollution-end-of-the-world-normal-evilness thing.

I will be writing about this project as I move along. Covering what works and what doesn't work. So far the membership costs $50 and says you can reduce your power bill by 90% for $200.

I am optimistic.

Feel free to email me if you have any questions for tips for me. Thank you.

Almost 2 years later, but now I'm ready

I made my first semi-professional, opinion blog on this blogger account around 2 years ago. Amazingly enough I still haven't made the time or the plunge. I've finally realized its what I need and will do.

I was talking with a few friends the other night and I was sort of looking inside myself and sharing it and I feel like I'm always trying to convert people to my way of thinking. However, while I thought that I railroaded the idea because I don't want people to think like me, I feel like I am trying to get them to articulate their way of thinking so that if it does make more sense then the way I think, then I will probably cross over or adopt that into my way of thinking.

So all in all, I just decided that this is what I like to do all the time. Talk with people and then discuss it with someone else, read about a story and then tell someone else about it. Not only that but I love to write.

For christmas my girlfriend and I bought books for all of our roommates. We want them to write too. I think things can come out in writing that would never make it to the mouth. Me on the other hand, its sort of the same. Pretty much stream-of-consciousness here.

Lastly, I decided that I need more dedication or routine....no scratch that, I need the self-discipline in order to dedicate and fulfill a necessary routine.

So in conclusion, I am now a blogger. And on a daily basis I am going to choose a topic, research it and express it in my own way on this blog.