Renewable Energy Scams

My post on the Magniwork free energy scam was so popular that there must be a strong need out there for someone to uncover all of these free energy scams on the web. With energy prices continuing to rise, it is an unfortunate fact that scams promising "Never pay for energy again!" or "lower your bills 50%" are going to always be around. I covered one such scam back in April regarding power factor correction. Check out the great job that my friend at Open4Energy has done with the Energy Saving Scams post.

Let me re-iterate this fact: The only way to lower your energy consumption is active conservation. There is no magic pill. Monitor, insulate, turn things off, use things less, etc. If you want renewable energy, you can have a professional install a solar system or wind generator, but it will probably be expensive. You will not save money building your own! You may end up with solar panels, but will they really produce a meaningful amount of energy? Do you want to put them on the roof that your family lives under?

If you see a product advertising itself as free energy machine, check out our post on "Why perpetual motion free energy devices don't work."

***Update 11/11/09 - So I decided to go on ClickBank and see if they had any "energy" guides that I could recommend that weren't scams. Guess what? Their top 7 "energy" related guides looked like scams to me. Here's a screen-shot of the first 7 energy scam articles:

So what is each item above:

Magniwork
Earth4Energy
Power4Home
GreenDIYenergy
Home Made Energy
Magnets4Energy
Free Power Blueprint (another perpetual motion scam)

Of all I've seen, the GreenDIYenergy is the least scammish, but still a little misleading. But hey, if you don't want to take my word, go ahead an buy one of these plans. I wont say I told you so (yes I will). Basically, people scammers upload their "guides" to ClickBank, then other people can sell those guides and earn a commission.

***Update 09/02/09 - Martin was kind enough to try and post a comment on my Power Factor Correction Scam post, but when I did a little research I discovered Martin is involved in a new scam I have not heard about called magnets4energy. Guess what! Looks like it is the same people behind Magniwork and Ambigrid. My post on Magniwork has been so popular (now the number one hit on Google) that they are trying to get ahead of the game and come up with new names. Don't fall for it! If you want a good chuckle, you can find Martin's site at freeenergy2010.blogspot.com (WARNING: Scam Site!), but I am not directly linking to it. Here is his comment, just so you get a feeling for how these scammers and frauds are trying to operate:

Interesting post, i found very cool clips on you tube of free magnetic energy generators and was absolutely fascinated. These are worth having a look at. Marty.

*Original post below

Ambigrid

I found Ambigrid on one of the scam websites promoting Magniwork and was amazed at how similar the Ambigrid and Magniwork websites looked. After some help from www.selfseo.com I discovered that (ta da!) Magniwork and Ambigrid are registered to the same IP Address!

Brothers in Crime

Guess the con-artists realized that people were catching on to the Magniwork name. Now I dont know what material they try to present in the Ambigrid plans, but since it is the same group of people promoting the plans, they get labeled scam by association.

Earth4Energy: While I'm not officially labeling this as a scam, it's pretty darn close. I also did an IP address search and found that Earth4Energy is also registered in Germany, but it has a different IP address than the ones above. Could they be related?

I have been over to a friend's house and seen the plans with my own eyes. While there is more useful information than Magniwork, it simplifies most things a great deal. I covered these guys in a recent post titled: Earth4Energy - too good to be true? The guys over at NLCPR.com have a pretty thorough analysis on what they are calling the Earth4Energy scam. I did find it interesting that some of the diagrams in Earth4Energy were the same diagrams in Magniwork. Could they be developed by the same people?

Basically, any site that offers to sell you plans to build an energy system (solar, wind, magnets, etc.) for cheaper than what you would pay a professional is probably a SCAM! Now, if they offer to teach you how to build a generator as a hobby project, that is something totally different. Also, if the site claims that the "energy companies" have been hiding the plans because of a big conspiracy, guess what...SCAM.

Electricity is not stuff to play around with. Unless you are a professional, don't think you can buy some magic plans to save energy. If it were for real, some reputable company would be doing it already. If you have doubts, shoot me an email and run it by me. I have access to electrical engineers and reputable people in the blogosphere.

Look at it this way: All these sites claiming to "help" you are selling something. This blog isn't. We do eventually want to make money (off ads). We are giving advice to attract readers so eventually we can make money off ads. But in order to do that we need to give good advice and be trusted. If Mapawatt violates that trust then nobody would read us.

Below are the websites I've found that recommend Magniwork (which is a 100% scam) or products like it. If you represent one of these websites or you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me. I'd love to have a healthy debate.

SCAM Sites

Anything that promotes Magniwork or Ambigrid is getting a Scam site label. If I were you, steer clear of these sites and all products they recommend.

Hojo Motor (this is now one of our most popular posts)

makepowerathome.com/

ambigrid.com/

ecopoweredhome.com/

magniwork.com/

diysolarhomes.com/

easyoffgrid.blogspot.com

freeenergy2010.blogspot.com - added on 9/2/09

magnets4energy.com - added on 9/2/09

Our society constantly looks for the easy way out, but when it comes to energy, there is no magic device here. It all comes down to implementing proven technologies that are discussed on Mapawatt Blog and other reputable sites. Don't fall for any of these scams!

***Update - 9/17/09 - So I was doing a little research, and I found this mock scam site:

http://diysolar.com

The web address looks like one of the scam ones, but it's not. It's worth checking out. The site actually makes fun of all the scam offers out there offering to teach you how to build your own solar panels. The best tip on diysolar.com:

Secret # 5. I know that I mentioned tax credits and rebates on my website but I never said in my video and guide book that your home made panels or wind generator would qualify for them. You see since your home made solar panels and wind generator aren't U.L. approved and would violate the NEC code (National Electric Code) if you installed them on an occupied dwelling, you can't get a permit to install them on your home or business. So if you can't get a permit then you can't apply for any tax credits or rebates.

***Update - 10/30/09 -- One of the Mapawatt team members sent a link for Power 4 Home. I won't say this is a 100% scam, but I will say they provide some misleading information. It looks like it is the exact same people behind a company mentioned above and something I've written about in the past, Earth 4 Energy (they aren't that original when coming up with different names).

One thing they say on their site is: "if you generate more energy than you use, the electricity company will pay you!". Which isn't true! Usually, the utility will just reduce your bill by the amount of energy you produce, but if you zero out they will not pay you any more! It is information like this that makes me add them to this list.

Another annoying thing about these sites, is they have an annoying pop-up like the one below when you try to leave their "scammish" site:

It seems like every single one of the sites utilizes this tool. I wonder if they are all working together?

***update 11/11/09 - I decided to actually see how this computer generated response works. Enjoy the conversation (it is just a coincidence that the computer sales person below has the same name as me)!

energy scam dialogue with a computer

Tags:

ambigrid scam

diysolar.com

earth4energy

energy 2 green

magnets 4 energy scam

power factor correction

power4home

ripoff report

trusted energy advice

Category:

Clean Energy

Comments

Anonymous (not verified) Sat, 05/29/2010 - 02:06

Just Energy currently has a wholesale price flexible plan plus 1 penny which comes with the option as a non-green plan. Green plans are always more expensive. This is a great plan and is not a scam as you state. Unfortunately not all independent agents explain the program properly to their customers. All agents must wear id badges when out in the field as fully identifying themselves as Just Energy Agents. All contracts signed in the field are verified from the customers phone and getting their agreement to the contract over the phone with the agent present. There is also a 10 day cooling off period, which gives the customer time to review the contract before reaffirming registration. The customer also has 30 days to cancel their contract with Just Energy after they receive their first bill if they are not satisfied. And on the non-green plans, there is only an exit fee of $100, not what has been stated in previous blogs. There is a higher exit fee for green plans, which is fully explained in the contract. It's apparent from this blog comments that people don't read their contracts and don't read them within the time frame of cancellation.

Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 04/26/2010 - 18:11

Nobody built a magnetic generator that works. This site: http://topmagneticgenerator.com claim it has build a magnetic generator, but when I asked them for pictures and proof that it works no one got back to me on this matter

Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 05/09/2010 - 15:38

Nathan, you are right,they will not answer you or even give you a small peak into it as they are looking for funds for the idea and are going about it the wrong way. An idea is one thing ,but to prove it is something else. I have worked for years on magnet generators and always end up with something which stops it from functioning correctly or even running to the correct coeffeint. So, I came to the conclusion that I was wasting time and should move to other things.

Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 04/23/2010 - 05:09

Yow dudes,boy it is good to hear you guys going off about the scams. Need to keep the alternate energy field clean for those that are really trying to give it a go. If they are scammers ,nail their a.. *I have been interested in the alternate energy field all my life and have or should I say at present am patenting a solar heating system.Will send photos to email addresses when it is through the pateent office. I just love exposing these guys who do not have any thing to add to the alternate energy field. Mark (your friendly neighbourhood weirdo) South Africa

Anonymous (not verified) Sat, 01/02/2010 - 03:25

open4energy is maintaining a list of as many of the scam sites as possible. It is quite a moving target .... http://open4energy.com/forum/home/scam/energy_saving_scams Chris and I and others are all working as hard as we can to identify these, have them posted, and get the results into the search results. Not easy as the affiliates, and the scam providers, are building sites, including sites that come up for queries including "scam" - clever. But we will prevail ...

Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 01/27/2010 - 11:37

open4energy has partnered with a real solar professional <a href="http://open4energy.com/forum/solar/eaw/solarman_guide_to_home_diy_solar_energy" rel="nofollow">Solar Man Dan</a> a Licensed Solar contractor with a NABCEP (North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners) certification, and a degree in electronic technology. This is the first post by Dan on how to do a real DIY solar project. It is free content, from a trusted source who has 24 years in the trade. Home solar is an excellent option, and there are costs to be saved doing the project yourself, but with the involvement of an licensed electrician. As Dan explained to me, you must have UL certified solar panels. The design of your project needs to be approved if it is to be connected to the grid in any way. But if you take some simple steps, by cost-effective panels from a reputable source, you can provide the labour and the implementation of a successful project at significantly reduced costs. These DIY energy scams are doing a great deal of harm to legitimate initiatives to both save and produce energy. Please join Chris and I in raising the awareness amongst the public of this issue.

Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 01/27/2010 - 11:21

I love these plans everyone is trying to sell for making your own solar electric panels. Let's face it... a PV solar panel is a whole grid of semiconductor, silica wafers. I really don't think most people have the ability to grow silica wafers themselves. If the plans are for connecting the individual cells into panels, where do they claim you can get the cells cheaper/free? It's been tempting several times to shop for the cheapest package and buy it, just to see how they claim it works! We currently have 17,000 watts of panels up and I have enough of an electrical engineering background to know it's pretty unlikely someone can do it much cheaper. Not to mention, I believe my array is generating something like 450VDC... that's nothing for an amateur to play with! I have a friend who does solar installs and I guarantee, if you could build your own, he'd be doing it! He keeps up on quite a few of these... one of his favorite things to do in his spare time is harass the Nigerian bank scheme people :) He'll send them replies and then make excuses for not sending the right info and he said it's amazing how solicitous (sp?) they get when they think you are interested!

Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 02/10/2010 - 13:19

Genuine free heat scheme Get 60' of 1" or 3/4" old iron pipe from scrapyard and a compressor, refrigeration unit of an old walk in freezer/ coldroom (check it's domestic supply-1ph- if that's what you have) together with all its wires and control box. dig a trench at least 2'6" deep in your gardern (deeper if you live in a cold place- if you live in somewhere like Siberia- forget it!) and lay your pipe in it. Refill the trench (using wet earth -mud- initially so the piping makes a good contact) Connect up to the feezer unit. Call in a commercial refrigeration engineer and have him connect the unit and evacuate/ charge it and check out the mains installation. Lead a large, insulated flexi pipe into your home from the refrigeration unit. Switch on and luxuriate in the cheap heat heat, which should cost you something like 1/4 to 1/8th of usual charge, since you are not generating (much) heat but rather extracting and concentrating it (using some mains energy) to rob free heat from the planet. I could sell plans, but can't be bothered to write all the ridiculous hype that the con artists do (hint, as Chris points out -the more hype the geater likelyhood of a con- and the magnets4u fold strenuously avoid telling what the 'secret'! is- how it is supposed to work, whilst laying on the hype with a 10" trowell. And, thimk on- if you already have some alternative energy system installed, like a wind turbine, then you can power the (above) heat extractor from that- far more efficient than trying to generate heat from electricity directly. This setup would suit someone living in far Nth Scotland, Ireland etc, where the weather was windy and cold. Should you not require to heat the house, you could use the heatpump to heat water or a swimming pool instead. So waddaya waiting for? Get into those dirty overalls, big boots, greasy cap- borrow the dirtiest, rustiest pick up you can find and get down to that junkyard. Never go dressed 'posh' to a scrap yard- the man will charge you double. Oh and by the way, tell him 'Joe or Louie sent you.' Scrap men always know at least 10 Joes or Louies. And don't buy a used fridge compressor standing on its own- it's probably been scrapped because it's broken. Find a complete, junked, walk in coldroom and remove the unit from that- don't worry it'll work. Or ask a friendly commercial refrig engineer to get you a good used one for scrap price.

Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 01/24/2010 - 12:15

İ saw a guaranteed organic bug killer for sale many years back - the package contained two wooden blocks and instructions. Place bug on block A and rap sharply with block B.

Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 12/22/2009 - 16:30

Well, thanks for your site. You just saved me $79. Merry Christmas.

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