Power4 Home Scam – Is The E-Book Power 4 Home A Fraud?
Is Power 4 Home A Scammer?
I wanted to write this blog post because there has been a lot of discussion about Power 4 Home e-book being a scam.
Firstly, I wouldn’t want to say whether anyone is right or wrong on this matter. Everyone has the right to their personal opinion.
What do I think about Power4 Home? Do I think it’s a scam? The truth is, I am pretty neutral on this subject.
I think the main difference here is the “expectation” of the buyer. Can you really make a solar power or wind generator system for less than $200 as proclaimed in Power 4 Home? It is difficult but not impossible.
Most of the parts such as the solar cells, charge controller, deep cycle batteries, power converter, cables etc are pretty expensive. It will cost a lot of money if you were to buy them from a hardware store.
Do you know you can get them for free or at a fraction of the cost? There are a lot of used of recycle parts that you can find if you are willing to do the work.
Are you willing to spend 2 weeks sourcing for used solar cells, test them, connect all of them together to make your home solar array? Some people are not willing to do that. It takes too much time and effort.
Are you willing to go to a golf course, talk to the electric golf cart maintenance technician and strike a deal with him so he’ll trade you the old deep cycle batteries? Some people choose not to do that.
All this are steps that you have to take in order to minimize your DIY renewable energy project cost. John Russel, the author of Power 4 Home did mentioned you can setup a solar panel for less than $200, as long as you follow his suggestion and willing to do the work.
Power4 Home E-book Guarantee
I also read a discussion on the web where a person claims that Power4 Home is a scam because he is unable to get a refund. Honestly, I find this hard to believe.
Power 4 Home is offered under Clickbank and they have a no question ask 60 days Money Back Guarantee policy for all of their information products.
I believe those that purchased the Power4 Home guide and unable to get their refund is because they went to the wrong web site. If they were to contact Power4Home web site to get the refund, they won’t be able to because that is not the right place for it.
To get the refund, they should visit Clickbank Customer Support page. All they need is the Clickbank Order Number to verify their purchase. However, the refund request has to be done within 60 day from the initial purchase date.
What Is Your Expectation?
Before I end this post, I want to reiterate that the issue of labeling Power 4 Home as a scam boils down to our “expectation”. Some people think they can cut their home power consumption by half just by purchasing a $49.97 e-book. I doubt that is going to happen.
Most of us would not have the skill, tools or knowledge to make a functional solar power or wind energy system for our home. It is a better idea to engage a professional contractor.
As a home owner, we should be prudent. We should at least get some basic information on the science of a home solar power system. At least with this knowledge, you will know when you are being charge of unnecessary parts or work done by the contractor.
If you have that kind of requirement or expectation, then the Power 4 Home e-book would be a good fit for you.
Why has no one ever tried to develop the Gray free energy motor – as from what I have read Grey did actually display a working model in public!
Howdy Will,
After viewing the Power4Home DVD, John Russel seemed to be competent and sincere, and the material content was quite interesting and helpful, to a degree.
But, ONE DVD is not what was advertised. Also, 1). The Exclusive Parts List; 2). The System Installation Guide; and 3). The Advanced Power Saving Device Bonus Guides were tagged: No Longer Available, Discontinued, etc…, and the so-called Tax Rebate Forms were dated 2007, making them unusable for 2009 or 2010.
So, as I did not receive what was advertised, but only a portion that is unusable, incomplete, I DID request a Refund.
What you’ve written is very helpful and appreciated. The Links you provide are also very informative and helpful.
Hi Charles,
It’s understandable some of the forms are outdated since you bought the Power4Home pack end of 2009.
Here’s a tip, don’t go to Power4Home web site to ask for refund. They don’t process your request there.
Instead, you need to go back to Clickbank. Power4Home sales transaction is handled by Clickbank, so you have to go back to them for refund request.
A lot of people didn’t know that and that has created many unhappy buyers. Here’s the link to Clickbank Customer Support Ticket System info page.
http://www.clickbank.com/help/vendor-help/vendor-tools/customer-support-ticket-system/
P/S: Remember to get the refund done within 60 days.
Power4Home’s website explicitly sets the following expectations:
“slash your power bill by 80% or even eliminate it completely.”
“You can build a very nice solar power system for as little as $96.50. All the parts you’ll be using can be found at your local hardware store.”
“even an absolute beginner will have no problems.”
The wording in the offer stipulated 1 solar panel, I counted 32 on the photo house in the advertisement, thats 32x$100 or $3,200 for a viable complete system in addition to the self assembly value? One solar panel a system does not make. The output on the wind turbine was also not stated. Output is fundimental to deciding on the value, which was left out of the original discusssion and your review. The review is just as misleading as the original ad. The value equivalencies on E-format versus hardcopy and shipping cost is a bogus comparison everything else equal. The information might be perfectly valid but the claims appear misleading in terms of actual cost for a full system etc. Suprise me a really post this comment.
I was looking into buying the Power4homes until I read these comments.Why do so many adds want to mislead people.Thanks to real comments like these.
Misleading information can also be classified as false advertising which is illegal.
In oder to get a refund on your electricity bill one must be generating more electricity than one consumes.
This is IMPOSSIBLE under a single $100 Photovoltaic cell, even combined with a wind generator, as advertised by John Russel.
A wind generator needs wind speed of 12.5m/s or 45 km/h 28 mph to make 500 watts of power. This is a strong breeze of Number 6 under the Beaufort Scale. These wind speeds do NOT occur in the most of suburbia.
The average Australian home can use 25kwh per day. a 1kw solar panel system ‘may’ produce 5.5kwh per day or 1/5 of the power needed to power the average Aussie home.
for more information see: http://corpau.blogspot.com/2010/10/alternative-energy-deliberate.html
I think the power 4 home is very misleading, not only for some of the reasons above but it leads one to believe that these instructions are complete and have you up and running in no time. The truth is they show you how to build the solar panel and a wind generator and the video ends. I really thought I would at least learn the types of items i needed in order to get this up and going. I have had the video for one day, i will be returning it this week. What good does the knowledge of putting these together to place in your yard and not be able to use. I felt ripped off at first but what you do find out is at the very beginning of the video is that you must have these installed by a professional once you have built them. I did not get that sense watching a 7 min video of his ( John Russell’s) reason for the making. I really thought this contained the building instruction and installation, boy was i wrong… Oh well, maybe i will get the refund for the video is worthless to me and the cost of a professional to install, amazingly high….
I agree with Tony. I can not get to the store page at the web sight Power4home “error 404 and no store page”. You can do solar energy youself but you need more knowlage then he gives you. Refund please.
I’m not an expert but I tend to agree with Tim “One solar panel a system does not make”. Seen a system in operation on an uncle’s farm in Namibia. There were at least 8 panels, can’t remember the output / panel but it was fairly substantial and all he could run from it was a fridge, a freezer (only during the day), a television and +/- 9 low wattage bulbs. No stove, or heater or a geyser. I suppose it is possible to built a solar panel at home but there are other components that you will need like a converter and battery pack for starters. The solar panels collects and supply 12 volt or 24 volt to charge the batteries (not sure about the volts) and the inverter changed the 12 volt to the standard 220 volt for appliances in South Africa and Namibia. These items are very expensive in South Africa and Namibia. This system that I saw battle to keep just the bare essential utilities going – I cannot see that you will be able to generate excess electricity to sell with it. From what I read small windmills is is not the powerhouse that people claim.
My recommendation: change your geyser to a solar geyser, change your stove and heater/s to gas and run your lights from a small solar system. Run other appliances like fridges, computers and tv’s from the power grid.
Several things didn’t add up after watching the 7 min video that was more like 20 min.+. (that’s the first clue). Secondly, John Russel claims to live in Duluth, MN and at one point in the video, shows a copy of his supposedly electric bill with Reliant Energy as the electric utility. First, Reliant does not do business in Minnesota. Their corporate office is in Houston and supplies electricity in Texas and New Jersey. However, Reliant does provide an avenue to sell back power to the grid. Maybe that’s why they used a Reliant bill in case anyone checked up on this thru Reliant’s website. Few utilities are setup to pay you for excess electricity. Secondly, at one point in the video, John claims to give an extra incentive to spend $50 on his plethora of crap and that is waiving the usual $14.88 (I’m guessing the cost, but it was $14 something) shipping and handling. However, when I decided to order by clicking on the Add to Cart button, all options added $7.99 to the order for shipping and handling. Who is being scammed now? Like others have said, he leads you to believe that parts costing $97 for one little solar panel can produce enough KWh to power a whole house. I call foul!
Well made sales video. However I did not get what was stated. I expected from the video to get a dvd, hard copy books, free expedited shipping and exclusive platinum level support. All I received was the dvd. No phone number to call for support, no email support. I went to clickbank which is the site that handles the business end and supposed support. My first request for support was made on 8/22/10 and I have made two additional requests since then. NO ANSWER. Today is 8/28/10 and I have still received no answer therefore I am returning the dvd as per instructions from clickbank. You can bet I will also contest this charge with my credit company as the seller has made no effort whatsoever to fulfill his verbal contract on the sales video. They have not offered any kind of communication with me whatsoever.
I’ve learned to be cautious with ads overselling their product with a lot of set up sob stories (“daddy, can you make it warmer?”) Give me a break. Always look for sites like these which will give you a better picture of the actual product.
A friend sent me a link to the websites video. I patiently endured several minutes of a pitch telling me how great this product is, and how we should not stand being ripped off by the power companies, etc etc, before he even mentioned the word ‘solar’. He starts right off the bat talking about how his system will not only power your house, but also put energy back into the power system grid, leading you to believe you should be expecting regular checks from the power company.
I know that the technology to do this exists, but when he started talking about only spending $197 at the hardware store is about the time I had had enough, as anyone who has any knowledge of what is really required knows that that is a ridiculous claim, you cannot equip your home with a solar power system that will power your house and put electricity back into the system for $200.
Let’s forget about the cost of the actual solar cells for a minute, which generate the 12 volts DC. That has to be converted to 120 volts a/c with an inverter. I have a 400 watt inverter in my van I use every day to power a small fan and a boombox, with luck, I could probably power a small LCD television with it too, 400 watts does not go a long way, and these are going on fleabay for around $40 to $50 bucks. You would probably want at least 4,000 watts to do anything usable, so do the math, and you’re already at $400.00 for an inverter(s) before you’ve even looked at a solar panel. As for storage batteries, yes, that’s fairly innovative to have you going around asking golf courses for their used storage batteries, I’ve actually gone into auto parts stores with dead batteries and a volt meter in hand and with a little wheeling and dealing exchanged my dead batteries for ‘cores’ that still had about 12 volts on them. So there are creative ways to deal with that if you’re willing to roll up your sleeves.
Now, as for the grid ties, which is what you need to put your electricity you’ve generated back into the system, plan on about $100 per 1000 watts. Do the math on what it would take for a very minimal 4000 watt system, remember we haven’t even bought single solar panel yet. Also, it’s entirely possible you may need to pull a city permit, which means the work would have to be done by a licensed electrician, followed by an inspection by a city inspector, although I have seen grid ties that can plug into a single GFCI outlet on a 20 amp circuit. If you don’t understand, and have not worked with electricity, it’s not something you should do yourself.
In short, it’s not hard to see you’re going to get very far with $200 in the way of powering your home with solar energy. The number I picked, 4000 watts was just kind of arbitrary, multiplying 400 watts by 10, and with 4000 watts your not going to be powering whole house air conditioners, that’s for sure, maybe with 8,000 watts you could run a small room air conditioner or two.
Again, the above peripheral equipment doesn’t even include one single solar panel.
It’s not my intention to denegrade his product or website, I think we live in an exciting time where we should all using solar, wind, and other alternative sources of power. The more people do this, and the more mainstream it becomes, the sooner it will be more cost effective, and in this day and age of the internet there is a lot of free, and good information to anyone willing to take the time and effort to research it. There is nothing wrong with spending your money on an informational DVD either, if that is what you choose to do. Caveat Emptor!!!
Has anyone tried to get a permit with home made panels, and home made structual engineering???? Engineering stamps, electrical, structural, civic???? Is it Legal, if you don’t get a permit?? Will you need to get it inspected before the Power Company will enter a Net Metering Agreement??? I think yes!, in florida, I believe that you may need need a couple Certifications from the Florida Solar Energy Center to get a rebate, does anyone know what this costs?
People do have houses with very small electric bills, or even generate enough power that they get paid for excess power sent to the utility…but these are massive systems. The video on the Power4Homesite suggests it can be done cheaply and easily, which is pretty misleading. I doubt the voice on the video of the website is even that of the owner. :o
I haven’t bought the offer, and won’t. I justed it for the sake of seeing how scammy it is. Are people with a 3rd grade education expected to be able to handle the soldering of the solar cells on their own, or is there some other way to connect them up with much less hassle?
The system was designed to be modeler, so you can get off the grid $97 at a time instead of having to fork over all the cash at once.
I’ve done my shopping, and found 6×6″ cells for $2 a peace, LiFePo4 cells for $20, Scooter motors for $76, and more. You just have to look, and you’ll find bargains on the internet. Even 1000 w invertors for $75. You can’t do this stuff all at once. You do it 1000 watts at a time, and make sure to stay in your buget. I got my first panel worth of solar sells for $44 from http://www.solarwindusa.com, try going to http://www.scootercatalog.com/xtreme-x400-electric-motor.html for the scooter motors for the wind generators, and http://stores.headway-headquarters.com/-strse-2/lifepo4-Headway-batteries,-EV,/Detail.bok for your batteries. The expencive thing about the head way cells is they need a bms which monitors your pack to make sure you don’t over discharge your cell. A 24 v 8 cell unit costs $88.99. So yes your battery pack will be pretty price if you want to go new but the magic is you can put it together a cell at a time if you want to. Meantime you can run your panels, and turbines, which are much cheaper than commercial modules, through what ever you’ve got.
The batteries are power storage, so as you build up your storage you can all ready by benefiting from you system wired directly to the invertor just don’t run too many generators of you’ll fry some of your appliances, there is no buffer without a battery pack.
If you’re looking at heating your house, and water with these generator or cooking with them don’t count on it. The author of power 4 home recommends going tank less if your going the heat water, and as far as cooking, and heating are concerned there are really cheap hydroxy generator build out there like the water4gas system that can be altered to turn 3Amps dump charge into enough fuel to run a furnace, and stove off. the appliances have to be altered, the burner ports have to be replaced with perforated cast iron pipe wrapped in steal wool, but the alteration is pennies, and you can do it all little by little .
Only a fool would call this system a scam.
I think the system he describes is by no means simple for the “average guy” to build for his home…..or adequate to power the average home and really save money without a more elaborate system. I love good ideas, but I detest simplistic misleading information. Sorry, but think it misleads the average guy who is even…”pretty handy!”
The product was not as advertised. The CD had minimal information and not nearly as comprehensive as advertised with mostly a bunch of links to the website. I requested a refund.
I watched the whole thing. I didn’t note the time but I think it ran close to 40 minutes. It took me about 2 minutes to decide the guy is a fraud. He sounded like a barker at a carnival. He makes a lot of money selling this pack of lies to the numerous suckers that compose the human race. Just another instance of the old saying,”if it sounds too good too be true it probably is”.
Dave
I totally agree with you Dave! There’s always certain details that let you know a guy is lying just to make money. Anyway, what is wrong with saying “I want to share this information with you because I want to make some money”?