Five Easy Ways to Go Solar Fast - Start Harnessing Sun Power

A rooftop solar cell array, solar-powered vehicle or solar-powered generator for your home might be prohibitively expensive -- thanks largely to the high cost of silicon needed to make photovoltaic cells -- but there are still quick and relatively inexpensive ways to start harnessing the sun's power today.

For example, you can help heat, cool or light up your home using so-called passive solar techniques, which don't require complicated mechanical systems. There are also simple projects that can help you use the sun's energy for cooking, food dehydration, water purifying and more.

Following are five easy and low-cost projects to help you start harnessing solar power today:

Build your own generator. Phil Heiple presents a user-friendly and straightforward guide for making your own solar-powered generator for under $300. Made with parts easily found at most decent hardware stores, the small generator can deliver enough electricity to keep a computer, TV and lights running during a power outage or a camping trip.

Add a simple solar heating system to your shed, workshop or garage. This guide at Mother Earth News might be more than 30 years old, but the results are still as relevant and beneficial as ever: an inexpensive (the project cost was pegged at $30 in 1977) add-on that can keep a 30-by-40-foot insulated structure comfortably warm on sunny winter days.

Build a passive solar space-heater for your home. Solar Components Corp. offers nifty step-by-step instructions for building an outdoor system that can heat your home via a south-facing window. The setup works by using the sun to heat an enclosed space of air outside, then directly the warm air naturally (no mechanical system needed) into an adjacent open window.

Use the sun to heat your water. Here's another oldie but goodie from Mother Earth News. This do-it-yourself guide walks you through the steps it takes to build an integral passive solar water heater. Again, it's an inexpensive project, requiring little more than an old water heater tank, a plywood box, flat black paint, some window glass or plastic, and a few basic plumbing parts.

Learn to cook the solar way. The Solar Cooking Archive features an amazing array of solar cooker plans you can make yourself in an hour or less. You can choose from designs made from cardboard and aluminum foil (the CooKit); two cardboard boxes, aluminum foil and black paint (the Minimum Solar Box Cooker); a reflective car sunshade and an old cake rack (the Windshield Shade Solar Funnel Cooker); an old car tire tube and two pieces of glass (The Tire Cooker); and many more. You can even order ready-to-make kits for some of the cookers, so you don't have to scrounge for parts or design pieces by hand if you're not the handy type.

Finally, if none of the projects above interest you, you can find plenty more do-it-yourself solar ideas at Build It Solar. The site features more than 500 projects for building everything from pool heaters and solar vehicles to solar-powered kids' toys and water conservation systems.