Earth4 Energy Scam – Is The Earth4Energy E-book A Fraud?
After looking through my blog traffic log, I notice a lot of people are looking for answer about Michael Harvey’s Earth 4 Energy e-book. A lot of people wanted to know whether Earth 4 Energy is a scam.
Since so many people wanted to know if it’s a fraud, I thought of writing a post about it.
The Promise Made By Earth4Energy
Earth 4 Energy web site
When you first visit Michael’s main web site at www.earth4energy.com, you are greeted with a large red headline, “How to make your own solar panels for less than $200“. That is the main benefit that they promised you will get out of the manual.
Is it possible? Can you build a DIY solar panel with such a low budget?
It is fair to say, if an everyday Joe can’t construct the solar module within the suggested budget, wouldn’t that proves Earth 4 Energy is a scam?
Then again, if a person follows the instructions laid out in the guide and managed to complete the project within the said budget, it is a good chance the e-book is legit.
I wanted to test my theory therefore I decided to do some research.
Building An Inexpensive Solar Panel
DIY Solar Panel Project Cost
As you can see from the diagram above, it shows the costing of a typical DIY solar panel. As it turns out, the total cost for the panel is only $98.20.
I have some doubt about the figure…so let’s do some digging.
From the costing, the most expensive item is the solar cells. It is $67.50 or about 68% of the overall budget.
I wanted to find out if the Photovoltaic (PV) costing is accurate.
Cheap Solar Cells at Ebay
According to Earth4Energy, the place to find cheap solar cells is at Ebay. The homemade solar panel suggested in the manual requires 36 pieces of 3” x 6” cells. The total power output of the panel is about 18 volt and approximately 75 watts of electricity.
It took me about 10 minutes to find the right kind of solar cells I am looking for. The closest listing that I could find in Ebay is 36 pieces of 3” x 5” PV cells with an offer price of $56.50. See the screen shot below.
36 pieces 3″ x 5″ solar cells
The end figure is quite close to the budget suggested in the Earth 4 Energy guide.
The Conclusion
So, is Earth 4 Energy a fraudulent scam?
As it turns out, the DIY solar module costing is quite accurate.
Michael Harvey is assuming most of us have some of the building material such as paint, Plexiglas, copper wire etc available in our garage therefore he did not account for that.
Well, the fact it, we may not have these items with us.
The material has to be bought from a hardware store. However, I don’t think it is going to be very expensive. An additional $20 would have been enough to cover the cost. The most expensive item is still the solar cells.
After my research, it IS possible to build a home solar panel for less than $150. Earth 4 Energy promised you’ll learn how to get is done for less than $200.
Personally, I think Michael Harvey’s claim is legit.
I understand some readers may be skeptical and I respect their opinion. If you would like to put in your thoughts, feel free to write in the comment box below.
One thing Michael doesn’t tell you is that homemade solar panels can catch on fire and burn your house down. And it nullifies your homeowner’s insurance. And even if they don’t burn down your house they won’t last nearly as long as commercially built cells.
the 60 day warrant for earth4energy diy book is not a very long time considering you have to read the material, order parts, assemble and test the system. a six month warranty seems to be a little more realistic.
After pricing all the materials and building the panel, you will find that it is not nearly big enough to power much. It produces about 75watts thats barely enough to light up a lamp. So to actually make one to run a house its going to cost you about $30,000. Pay back time will take years to recover if you can.
I just finished my solar panel. It was easy and fun and it produces 50W. To be honest you can get all the info of how to do it for free. Just go to google and type DIY solar panels.
Haha, the “costing” of enough solar panels to power a house would be on the order of $20,000, not $200. What you got there, if you managed to wire it together out of broken pieces from Ebay, would be enough to power a 75 watt light bulb at best.
Plus, this “expert” reviewer forgot to mention the need for an inverter and for batteries – which would be thousands also. This shows either that the reviewer knows nothing about solar power, or is just a shill for the seller of the original product. The latter is most likely true. I bet this comment will get taken down anyway, but in case it isn’t, this is a laughable scam to make people buy useless info.
I agree with Cornu about the costing. I believe it will cost you upwards of $40,000 to have a complete solar power system installed at your home by a professional solar contractor.
The cost of $200 is only for 1 DIY solar panel. It can be build with 36 pieces of 3” x 6” cells. The total power output of the panel is about 18 volt and approximately 75 watts of electricity.
What can you do with it?
Not a lot actually. But you can use it to charge a 12 volts deep cycle battery. The charging time will be quite long though. After some time, the battery will be fully charged and you can use it to power any of your electrical devices.
If you need Alternate Current (AC), just use a power inverter. If you want to reduce the battery charging time, build more DIY solar panel and hook them up to the battery unit.
‘Will
Hey one panel 75 watts @ $200
20 panels = $4000
1 inverter @ $2500
= 225kw of power @ 5 Hrs of sunlight over 30 days
That’s 80% of a typical home. for $6500.
Not bad but no where near the ” I think it would $40,000 dollars”
So, if it can produce 75w – It should be able to run the landscape LED lights all night!! Comments? The newer 6-9-12 LED flashlights running of 4.5volts are quite bright and they cost about $2 @ Home Depot and half the price/$1 on ebay. I experimented, on a dark night, by placing a pair 10′ feet apart and 30′ away from the house (white) @ about 30 degree angle and they lit the house better than a full moon. My next step is to get about 10 of them and connect them in parallel and see how well they brighten up. I hope to use only one panel, charge up a car battery (for the night use) and hope to light up the house all night. Feasible?