[Paul Junkin] bought a curious product off the Internet. It was supposed to generate electricity when hooked up to a running hose. Only, it didn’t do a very good job. His solution was ...

The concept of building your own hydroelectric generator seems simple at face value: use gravity to impart as much force as possible onto a turbine, which spins a generator, thus generating ...

When the lights go out and the house falls silent, you are not thinking about code books or wiring diagrams. You just want ...

When the lights go out, a portable generator can feel like a lifeline, but if you rush the startup, you can end up staring at ...

When a power outage hits, getting left in the dark is just one of the concerns. An extended blackout is an inconvenience, but being without air conditioning, heating or necessary medical equipment is ...

Ideally, you don’t use your portable generator often. But you don’t want this key piece of emergency equipment to let you down when you need it. How can you make sure your generator is always ready to ...

Mike De Socio is a CNET contributor who writes about energy, personal finance, electric vehicles and climate change. He's also the author of the nonfiction book, "Morally Straight: How the Fight for ...