A few years ago renewable energy such as solar power and wind power was an impossible dream for the average person. Why? It was very very expensive to turn your own home into a solar power generator. In fact you were unlikely to ever make your money back with the energy savings. But recently all of that has changed.

Both solar power and wind power have become genuine alternative energy sources in the last few years. And the best thing is, you can create working generators and plates/turbines yourself, for very little cost. This means you will be saving thousands of dollars making them, and then thousands more when they are up and running.

Has there ever been a better time to get green? Not only is electricity the most expensive it has EVER been right now, but the planet is also in the worst shape it has ever been. What do these two things mean for you? They mean you should try and generate some of your power (even if you only decide to make 20% of your own power).

It is not hard to get the materials, and as long as you have a good manual to follow you should easily be able to implement your own system and start saving money on your bills. Solar power is ideal for just about any home in America (amongst other countries). Wind power is ideal for higher up (hilly terrain) locations or large flat locations. On top of saving a lot of money or your bills you will find yourself having fun with a great family project.

There are a hundred reasons to start converting your house to be efficient source of renewable energy. You can save anywhere from 10% to 100% of your electricity bills (how important might that be in this economic climate?), you will not have to rely on any one else – in fact if you are producing enough people will pay you for your electricity. And to top it all off, you will have a lot of fun converting your house!

But how should you do it? Would you choose solar energy to power your home? Solar power is the number one choice for most houses in America. It is produced by light and radiation from the Sun hitting panels that are able to transform it into energy. Then the cells send the energy to a storage generator. Here it the electricity is kept until needed, before travelling to indiviual devices such as your light bulbs. In recent years solar power has become highly efficient and what is even better is it is now possible (and not that hard!) to create your own solar pannels and generator. To learn how please skip down to the end of this article.

The other favourite form of self generating power are wind turbines. These are like windmills, and when the wind spins the mill around electricity is generated. These are more suited to higher locations, or at least locations with a bit of wind. They are very efficient and quite easy to put together. You will not have a 60 foot one in your garden, you can have a much sleeker, quieter version that will power your home.