Are you committed to finding greener ways of living? Are you looking for a new way to teach your children responsibility and self-sufficiency? Or maybe your just looking for a new hobby to try at home? Well then maybe you should give DIY energy projects a try.
Here are 5 simple projects to get your juices flowing:

• Perhaps one of the easiest DIY energy projects involves black plastic hoses.
  Simply expose the hoses to the sun's rays.
  Absorbing the heat of the sun will produce enough hot water for showering or heating your pool.
  
• An easy one to share with the kids is a solar grill or broiler.
  Line a box with aluminum foil and put it out in the sun.
  Foods placed on the foil will cook rather slowly,but will greatly reduce the need for gas or propane.
  
• One of the more interesting DIY energy projects to give a whirl is assembling thermal panels.
  Find a working radiator set and paint it black.
  Place the painted set in a box in direct sunlight at a 30 degree angle to the sun.
  Connect copper tubes to the back of the radiator so that water can travel through them.
  Use a small pump to send the heated water to an insulated storage tank.
  This tank can be used to supply heat for things in your home such as faucets, showers, washing machines and dishwashers.
  You can expect a continual supply of heated water with your insulated tank even if there has not been much sun in a couple of days.
  
• Try the evacuated tube collection system, if you want additional simple DIY energy projects for the average homeowner.
  It is similar to the flat plate collector but also has a vacuum tube with an attached heat conductor.
  This conductor will help to gather the sun's energy more easily.
  
• Photovoltaic cells are considered the cleanest and most efficient form of renewable energy.
  DIY energy projects that use these cells require some proficiency in technology, but can provide your home with a considerable amount of energy throughout most of the year.
  

In the last decade, there have been amazing gains in DIY energy products.
They are convenient and practical ways to save on utility bills while reducing one's carbon footprint.
Today, homemade energy is available almost year-round and costs less than half of what it did in previous years.