DIY Energy Saving Projects

There are lots of DIY Energy Saving Projects for people who want to either save energy or produce their own energy - a quick surf through the internet will find hundreds of projects for the keen DIYer.

Some of these DIY energy saving projects are very simple – using sunlight to heat up a small amount of water for washing hands at the garden shed, installing a water butt to capture and use rainwater, or installing shed or garden lights powered by a small solar panel.

Other DIY energy saving projects are far more ambitious – such as building a hot-water solar heating system, or building a wind turbine. If you’re a keen DIY’er – all these things can be done at a fraction of the cost of buying an off-the-shelf system.

Here are a few DIY energy saving projects that can be installed in a few minutes that can improve your carbon footprint and improve your standard of living – without breaking the bank.

Build a Solar Generator

This project describes how you can build a solar power generator to generate 240v mains voltage where-ever you want it.

The generator can be designed as a completely portable system running out of a briefcase, or a large system built into a garage or shed: Solar Power Generator

Solar Water Heating

There are lots of different DIY energy saving projects for solar water heating. The simplest takes a few minutes, costs less than £10, and is ideal for producing hot water for a garden shed or an allotment.

More advanced solar water heating projects can be used for supplemental water heating for your home and compare with commercially available units in efficiency.

The hot water garden tap

This is a great introduction to solar water heating - and best of all it costs less than £10.

Solar showers can be bought from outdoor shops and camping and caravanning shops. They consist of a basic shower head, a tap and a water tube, plus a large black 'solar collector' water bag.

The water bag is filled with water (filtered water from a water butt works well) and then hung up or laid flat in a sunny spot.

The sun heats up the water over a period of 2-3 hours and in summer, this system can work extremely well. Unfortunately, heat loss from the bag makes the standard unit useless during colder months in the year.

The solution is simple - place the solar collector in a greenhouse or in a cold frame. The sunlight heats up the solar collector and the glass frame traps the heat inside the collector, stopping it from escaping.

Using this method, it is possible to heat up a good quantity of hot water - ideal for washing your hands or cleaning equipment at the bottom of the garden.

Making a solar heating panel

Here are two designs for simple solar water heaters that can be built using scrap parts for very small amounts of money. You’ll need some basic DIY skills and for your efforts you’ll have a fairly efficient solar water heater. The first one, according to the designer, on a hot sunny day the water can scald within a few seconds.

For a more advanced design of solar water heater, offering similar performance to commercially available units at a fraction of the cost, click here:

Plumbing a solar water heating panel into your home to supplement your boiler can be more tricky. How best to achieve it depends very much on your own home and heating installation. In doubt, consult a plumber, who will be able to advise you on the best solution.

Solar powered lighting

Whilst it is possible to run your lighting at home using solar electric panels, this is an advanced project that requires experienced and qualified electricians to install.

There are, however, a number of smaller DIY energy saving projects that can be undertaken. These are especially cost effective where it would be useful to have a light where there is no electricity - in a remote garage, a garden shed or at the end of the garden.

We have reviewed a number of solar motion lights that can be used either outside and activated by movement, or as small shed lights. You can read the review here: Solar Motion Light Review

Garden and Outdoor Lighting

Solar powered PIR lighting - which comes on at night when you walk into an area - is available from a number of different companies. Prices start from £25 and a typical system comprises of the PIR and lighting unit, which incorporates a small battery, and a separate small solar panel. Prices start from around £25.

We have recently conducted a nine month test of a number of solar motion lights. Our findings and recommendations are here:

Solar Motion Light Review

In terms of light quality, the units vary considerably. Most use LED lighting which provides a relatively weak light - good enough to find house keys and avoid tripping over anything, but not really much better than that.

It is worth looking for the units that do not use LED lighting. Westfalia sell a halogen based system which provides a superb light which is bright enough to illuminate a large area.

Shed/Garage lighting

There are a number of shed and garage lights available that are powered by a small solar panel and prices start from under £15.

Unfortunately, many of them are fairly weak – using low powered LED lights which do not give enough light for the task.

For smaller systems, we would recommend the Westfalia PIR solar light. This uses a small halogen bulb and provides sufficient light to work in a shed, or to illuminate a garage.

If you need more light than this, you can buy off the shelf lighting systems incorporating larger solar panels and multiple light bulbs. These will give similar lighting levels to normal household lighting - ideal for working in a garage or large shed at night.

Alternatively, for a real DIY energy saving projects approach, you can build your own system:

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