The Homeowner's Guide to Renewable Energy

The Homeowner's Guide to Renewable Energy PDF Author: Dan Chiras
Publisher: New Society Publishers
ISBN: 0865716862
Category : House & Home
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
Presents information on how to improve a home's energy efficiency and switch to renewable energy resourses to provide electricity, hot water, heat, and cooling for a home.

The Homeowner's Energy Handbook

The Homeowner's Energy Handbook PDF Author: Paul Scheckel
Publisher: Storey Publishing
ISBN: 1612120164
Category : House & Home
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
Discusses renewable energy resources and provides instructions for creating energy-saving and energy-producing equipment.

Smart Power

Smart Power PDF Author: William H. Kemp
Publisher: Tamworth, Ont. : Aztext Press
ISBN: 9780973323313
Category : House & Home
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
Hundreds of ways for city dwellers (and renters) to save on energy costs!

Natural Home Heating

Natural Home Heating PDF Author: Greg Pahl
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
ISBN: 1603581561
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
"Natural Home Heating" is the first comprehensive guide to heating your home with renewable energy sources. Greg Pahl offers a well-organized, easy-to-understand tour of all available home-heating options, including traditional oil and gas furnaces, wood stoves and masonry heaters, active and passive solar systems, and heat pumps. Included is everything you need to know about the fuels, systems, technologies, costs, and advantages and disadvantages of each option. Pahl teaches homeowners how to retrofit existing heating systems and choose renewable replacements, or design an entirely new house that can be heated comfortably with minimal environmental and financial impact. Consider: - 95% of American homes are heated with fossil fuels. - Oil and gas prices are up by more than 20% as supplies dwindle and sources become less reliable. - Home heating costs could double or even triple in the event of a fuel crisis. - The fossil fuel economy is unsustainable. - There are viable, clean, healthy, and afford able home heating alternatives! Learn how to burn environmentally friendly bio-diesel fuels, not just in your car, but in your furnace. Find out how a ground-source heat pump works and why it can achieve 400% heating efficiency. Discover what it takes to make burning wood truly sustainable. Natural Home Heating explains all these details and more, making it unique in the marketplace.

Power from the People

Power from the People PDF Author: Greg Pahl
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
ISBN: 1603584102
Category : House & Home
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
Over 90 percent of US power generation comes from large, centralized, highly polluting, nonrenewable sources of energy. It is delivered through long, brittle transmission lines, and then is squandered through inefficiency and waste. But it doesn't have to be that way. Communities can indeed produce their own local, renewable energy. Power from the People explores how homeowners, co-ops, nonprofit institutions, governments, and businesses are putting power in the hands of local communities through distributed energy programs and energy-efficiency measures. Using examples from around the nation - and occasionally from around the world - Greg Pahl explains how to plan, organize, finance, and launch community-scale energy projects that harvest energy from sun, wind, water, and earth. He also explains why community power is a necessary step on the path to energy security and community resilience - particularly as we face peak oil, cope with climate change, and address the need to transition to a more sustainable future. This book - the second in the Chelsea Green Publishing Company and Post Carbon Institute's Community Resilience Series - also profiles numerous communitywide initiatives that can be replicated elsewhere.

Solar Rooftop DIY: The Homeowner's Guide to Installing Your Own Photovoltaic Energy System (Countryman Know How)

Solar Rooftop DIY: The Homeowner's Guide to Installing Your Own Photovoltaic Energy System (Countryman Know How) PDF Author: Mike Sullivan
Publisher: The Countryman Press
ISBN: 1581575335
Category : House & Home
Languages : en
Pages : 402

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Book Description
The do-it-yourself guide for converting your home to solar power Solar energy is clean, efficient, sustainable—and expensive. Or is it? Many homeowners simply assume that the cost of solar panels is out of their reach, but in reality, the technology is quickly becoming attainable for the middle class. Rather than leasing panels from one of those home solar startups (and letting them reap the financial benefits), why not join the thousands who are doing it themselves? In Solar Rooftop DIY, sustainable energy expert Mike Sullivan offers five design plans—ranging from a few simple panels to a complex, roof-covering array—for building a rooftop PV energy system for any home. Each plan has clear and detailed step-by-step photographs showing the installation process. Many of them require no additional labor—just a few days' commitment for the average weekend warrior. With energy costs only set to increase in the future, now is the time to make the switch to solar and start selling power back to the grid.

Live in a Home that Pays You Back

Live in a Home that Pays You Back PDF Author: Anna DeSimone
Publisher: FriesenPress
ISBN: 1039123503
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Book Description
Featuring programs and resources for the U.S. and Canada “An authoritative and comprehensive overview of the benefits of energy-efficient homes.” –Kirkus Reviews Whether you are planning to build, buy, or retrofit a home, this illuminating book takes you on a virtual tour of the home of the future. Award-winning author and respected housing expert Anna DeSimone lights the way for enjoying a home that is healthier, more comfortable, saves money, and reduces your carbon footprint. A practical reference guide that can be used for years to come, this book uncovers every part and parcel of the sustainable home, with clear explanations, helpful infographics, and hundreds of follow-up resources. An eye-opening look at the health benefits of energy-efficient homes, trends in household energy use, and its effect on greenhouse gas emissions. Explains a home’s true cost of homeownership after factoring lowered utility costs, enhanced property value, mortgage discounts, and other financial incentives. The “whole-house efficiency blueprint,” chapter describes how things work, along with eco-friendly options for roofs, siding, insulation, doors, windows, lighting, appliances, water conservation, heating, cooling, ventilation, heat pumps, air- and heat-exchange systems, indoor air quality, and more. Renewable energy options covered include solar photovoltaic systems, wind energy, geothermal, hydro-electric power, and biomass. You’ll learn the infrastructure for grid-connected systems, billing credits, net metering, solar power purchase agreements, renewable energy certificates, and how positive energy can bring cash rewards. Learn about the popular “zero energy ready” program, a high-performance home that is pre-wired with a renewable energy component. National green-building certification programs covered, such as Net Zero, Passive Home, Zero Carbon, etc. for the U.S. and Canada. Everything you need to know about home energy scores and ratings. Explains evaluations for programs by the U.S. Department of Energy, RESNET HERS, and Canada EnerGuide. The home building opportunities will inspire you to roll up your sleeves and be the general contractor. Explains construction for modular, manufactured, log and timber, and prefab home kits, along with photos of model homes. Learn how smart home technology helps monitor the health and safety of your family and pets. Important guidance about environmental toxins, biological pollutants, and non-toxic solutions. Mortgage financing covers down payment assistance, nationwide energy-efficient mortgage programs, PACE financing, mortgage qualification guides, and how to roll the retrofit costs into the mortgage. Features programs for U.S. and Canada. Comprehensive directory of rebates and incentives for all U.S. states and Canada provinces. Find out about cash rebates and financial incentives from utility companies and local municipalities, along with key local government policies such as solar and wind access rights, and net metering laws.

A Field Guide to Renewable Energy Technologies

A Field Guide to Renewable Energy Technologies PDF Author: Robert Ferry
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780578615981
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
In the near future we will be surrounded by the most diverse ecosystem of renewable energy technologies and energy landscapes, each a reflection of local culture and context. This field guide will help you to distinguish between a semiconductor-based artificial photosynthetic cell, a piezoelectric generator, a triboelectric fabric, or a dye-sensitized solar cell, just to name a few examples. It is a useful reference for designers, artists, architects, engineers, landscape architects, and anyone who wants to reduce the carbon footprint of the world by integrating renewable energy beautifully into buildings, products, cities, and artworks.

Energy-Wise Landscape Design

Energy-Wise Landscape Design PDF Author: Sue Reed
Publisher: New Society Publishers
ISBN: 0865716536
Category : House & Home
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
Save money and energy while adding natural beauty to your home.

Power from the Sun - 2nd Edition

Power from the Sun - 2nd Edition PDF Author: Dan Chiras
Publisher: New Society Publisher
ISBN: 1550926241
Category : House & Home
Languages : en
Pages : 786

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Book Description
The completely revised and updated guide to solar energy – everything you need to power your home or small business Written for the individual or business layman, this is the fully revised and updated guide for generating solar electricity. Practical and accessible, it provides a basic understanding of electricity, wiring, and solar energy, and guides the reader through solar electricity site assessment and determining the type of solar system needed for generating solar electricity, providing a solid understanding of grid-tied and off-grid systems, along with important guidelines on installation. Power from the Sun – 2nd Edition discusses types of photovoltaic and photovoltaic solar energy systems, and includes comprehensive information on recent changes and improvements in PV modules, charge controllers, inverters, batteries, generators, and net metering policies. It offers an excellent overview of the many options available as a guide for generating solar electricity, allowing the reader to make the best choices for their individual situation during the design, installation, and operation of a solar energy system. The definitive layman’s guide for homeowners, business owners, installers, architects, and just about anyone interested in generating solar electricity to lower energy bills and achieve greater independence through solar energy. Dan Chiras is Director of the Center for Renewable Energy and Green building through which he teaches workshops on solar electricity, wind energy, passive solar design, natural building, and green building. He is also president of Sustainable Systems Design, Inc., a company that installs residential solar electricity and wind energy systems and consults on passive solar design, residential renewable energy, and green building throughout North America. Dan is the author of 32 previous books, including The Homeowner's Guide to Renewable Energy and Power from the Wind .