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Product Description
Product Description
The coming energy crisis caused by a peak in global oil and natural gas production will profoundly affect the lives of all North Americans. As the price of these vital fuels rises, homeowners will scramble to cut their fuel bills. Two options for meeting the upcoming challenge are dramatic improvements in home energy efficiency and efforts to tap into clean, affordable, renewable energy resources to heat and cool homes, to provide hot water and electricity, and even to cook. These measures can result in huge savings and a level of energy independence.
The Homeowner's Guide to Renewable Energy tells you how. It starts by outlining the likely impacts of fossil fuel shortages and some basic facts about energy. It then discusses energy conservation to slash energy bills and prepare for renewable energy options. Focusing carefully on specific strategies needed to replace specific fuels, the book then examines each practical energy option available to homeowners:
- solar hot water, cooking and water purification
- space heat: passive and active solar retrofits
- wood heat
- passive cooling
- solar electricity
- wind-generated electricity
- electricity from microhydropower sources, and
- emerging technologies -- hydrogen, fuel cells, methane digesters and biodiesel.
The Homeowner's Guide to Renewable Energy gives readers sufficient knowledge to hire and communicate effectively with contractors and, for those wanting do installations themselves, it recommends more detailed manuals. With a complete resource listing, this well-illustrated and accessible guide is a perfect companion for illuminating the coming dark age.
Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series
(20060501)About the Author
Dan Chiras is a respected educator and author who has published more than 25 books on residential renewable energy and green building. He is the is founder and director of The Evergreen Institute, where he teaches workshops on small wind energy systems, solar electricity, passive solar design, energy efficiency, and green and natural building.
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Most helpful customer reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Solar homes,
By
This review is from: Homeowners' Guide To Renewable Energy (Paperback)
If your interested in a overview of the technology and don't want to get into the nuts and bolts of the industry this book is for you. I was hoping for more meat and potatoes, it didn't meet my needs, great pictures and simple explanations make this book the the first book you get when you start your research on the subject, but if you have a modicum of knowledge on the subject please save your money and invest in insulation.
4.0 out of 5 stars
similar material,
By mybalconyjungle (Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Homeowners' Guide To Renewable Energy (Paperback)
This book rehashes a lot of material from another of the authors books: `The Solar House'. Sections relating to energy efficiency, passive conditioning and backup heating methods appear to be reworded and updated text from that book. Sometimes even lifted word for word. I should point out though that it was all good material. It would have been nice to hear more about heat pumps.
A good third of this book is devoted to energy efficiency. You really can't have a discussion about renewable energy without addressing the issue of energy efficiency: the two go hand in hand. The chapters explaining solar, wind and micro-hydro were brief and really just introductory in nature. There was a fair bit of repetition in the last few chapters describing the different methods of power generation. Separate chapters explaining storage and distribution techniques could have been added to avoid this. The Renewable Energy Handbook by William Kemp is a good alternative to this book. It has a similar layout but the content is more technical and the author is Canadian.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.4 out of 5 stars (16 customer reviews) 70 of 71 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great resource for selecting the best RE options for your home,
By John Wills - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Homeowners' Guide To Renewable Energy (Paperback)
This is a great introduction to essentially all the renewable energy resources available. Chiras takes a sensible, realistic look at a number of options for both reducing your dependence on fossil fuels as well as saving money. He talks about which solutions work best in which climates and gives tips on where to begin wading into renewable energy.
I originally bought the book as a resource to help us select which renewable energy options were viable in our new home design. It served that purpose well but I will also keep it handy as we move forward as Chiras goes beyond the typical introduction and gives planning suggestions and some detailed discussions on sizing and maintenance of a few systems. Note that this book is targeted at home owners wishing to retrofit their EXISTING homes for renewable energy. Repeatedly throughout the book, Chiras recommended his book "The Solar House" for those of us designing new homes. I plan to read that book before building but still found a lot of useful information in this book. 57 of 60 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A decent overview; left me wanting more details.,
By tmancill - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Homeowners' Guide To Renewable Energy (Paperback)
I read this book cover-to-cover over the course of a couple of weeks. I'm new to the field of renewable energy, so you'll have to take my criticisms for what they are, a critique of the writing:
1) The author frequently repeats himself, and sometimes goes so far to state that he is repeating himself, and that the reader should refer back to a previous section. 2) Many of the references are "so and so claims such and such" or references to the Home Power magazine. It's great that the author cites his sources, but it often left me wondering if the author placed any stock in the claim being reported. 3) The author frequently refers to his own house, which was designed from the ground up to use renewable energy. While this is neat, it doesn't seem applicable to readers who already own houses (with a 99% chance that they're not nearly as efficient, and that it's not possible to convert them). 4) I would have enjoyed more information on solar power, since it seems to be the most applicable in urban and suburban areas. Instead, it received basically equal treatment alongside micro-hydroelectric and wind power. Still, it's a good book - 3.5 stars - and contains a number of references to other sources of information on the topic. 13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Renewable Energy for the Masses,
By John Parks - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Homeowners' Guide To Renewable Energy (Paperback)
This is a good book for people who want a better understanding of what can be achieved using renewable energy in a residential application. It only gets 4 stars from me because the author gets a bit preachy at times about his opinions on fossil fuels and future scarcity, high price, etc. He does practice what he preaches and uses personal examples in much of the book.
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