Over the course of a single day, the entire United States receives enough energy directly from the sun to power the entire country for longer than a year. But as long as the world continues to rely on the use of fossil fuels, solar power will stay the underestimated resource that it is right now.

Taking advantage of this free power resource can save you a lot of money by using a do it yourself solar power system. If you look on the internet, there are some amazing DIY Energy Guides that will step you through the entire process from beginning to end. There are many people no different than you saving 100’s to 1000’s of dollars every year using these inexpensive but highly effective resources.

It can be helpful to first understand how solar power works before embarking on any solar power project which is why you should read this: How Solar Power Works

Solar power is very easy and this do it yourself solar power project is a wonderful way to find out. All you need to get started are a few inexpensive supplies, many of which you can find around your home, and a clean working space.

Do It Yourself Solar Power Project Instructions

1. Find a small sheet of copper and using a pair of tin snips, cut the copper into 2 equal sized squares that are small enough to fit on an electric stove top burner.

2. Place 1 of the copper cutouts on an electric burner and heat it to the point the copper turns completely black.

3. Let it sit until the copper cools to room temp.

4. Now you can carefully remove the remaining black flakes from the copper cutout.

5. Obtain an empty 2 Liter plastic bottle and remove the top with scissors.

6. Put both pieces of copper inside the bottle and bend them until they are flush with the inside of the bottle.

7. Secure the copper pieces inside the bottle with alligator clips.

8. Dissolve 3 tablespoons of salt into a pot of warm water.

9. Once cooled, carefully pour the salt water mixture to the bottle so that it covers the copper cutouts while leaving at least an inch of copper outside of the water.

10. Take the solar project outside and into direct sunlight.

11. You can measure the output power of your solar power generator by attaching the leads of a multimeter to the alligator clips.

For more details on this solar power project read this: Do It Yourself Solar Power

While you won’t be powering your home from this simple do it yourself solar power experiments, it is a great demonstration of how easy it is to generate your own power. When using one of the proven step-by-step DIY Energy Guides, you’ll see that building solar panels isn’t much more involved than this project.

Take a look at my own personal review of one of the time and money saving solar power guides right here: Homemade Energy Review