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A well-organized, easy-to-understand review of renewable home-heating options that includes everything you need to know about passive and active solar systems, wood and pellet stoves, masonry heaters and air- and ground- source heat pumps.

Today, more than ever before, our society is seeking ways to live more conscientiously. To help bring you the very best inspiration and information about greener, more sustainable lifestyles, Mother Earth News is recommending books to its readers. For more than 30 years, Mother Earth News has been North America’s “Original Guide to Living Wisely,” creating books and magazines for people with a passion for self-reliance and a desire to live in harmony with nature.

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If you live near a river or stream, Microhydro, a MOTHER EARTH NEWS Book for Wiser Living, explains everything you need to know to produce electricity for your home. This book outlines the basic requirements and approximate costs of home-scale hydroelectric systems that let you create clean, off-grid independent power.

Hydroelectricity is the world's largest — and cleanest — source of renewable energy. But despite lively interest in renewables generally, there is an information vacuum about the smallest version of the technology dubbed "the simplest, most reliable and least expensive way to generate power off grid."

Highly illustrated and practical, Microhydro is the first complete book on the topic in a decade. Covering both AC and DC systems, it covers principles, design and site considerations, equipment options, and legal, environmental and economic factors.

About the Author

Scott Davis has decades of experience operating, installing, designing, selling and teaching about microhydro technology. An award-winner in the field, he currently works as a system designer and retailer with an alternative energy company for whom he has authored an on-line microhydro course.

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This is THE definitive book on wind energy if you're considering your own system or investing in a wind company. This new edition includes successful case studies, sources for new and used equipment, and hundreds of color photographs and illustrations.

Today, more than ever before, our society is seeking ways to live more conscientiously. To help bring you the very best inspiration and information about greener, more sustainable lifestyles, Mother Earth News is recommending books to its readers. For more than 30 years, Mother Earth News has been North America’s “Original Guide to Living Wisely,” creating books and magazines for people with a passion for self-reliance and a desire to live in harmony with nature.

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This vegetable-oil based fuel is more biodegradable than sugar and less toxic than table salt. In this essential book, author Greg Pahl explores biodiesel's exciting potential as a fuel for vehicles, home heating and more. It includes resources for buying or making your own biodiesel.

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When petroleum and natural gas prices climb, the economic benefit of wood burning is clear. Add to that independence from outside forces, and heating with wood can bring you genuine stress relief. The perfect guide to the ins and outs of burning wood for heat, including the fuel value of various woods and how to buy firewood and get the most heat from it. Second edition.

Best Seller! Any backorders expected to ship November 5th.

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This 38-page solar-energy guide is one of the most unique ever written on the topic. Subjects covered include how to make hot air and water, solar concentration and water pasteurization. Author Steven E. Harris also shows you where to get the glass and PV panels for free!

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Learn how to get the most bang for your energy buck. The Home Energy Diet, a MOTHER EARTH NEWS Book for Wiser Living, was designed to help readers take control of their personal energy usage and costs so they can save money, live more comfortably and help reduce environmental impacts. With rising energy costs, homeowners are beginning to examine the energy efficiency of their own homes, asking questions about where energy comes from and how much it costs, how to choose new appliances and what options exist for renewable energy.

The Home Energy Diet answers all these questions and more while helping readers take control of their personal energy use and costs so they can save money, live more comfortably and help the environment. Energy auditor Paul Scheckel first explores energy literacy, and then describes how your home uses-and loses-energy you pay for through electricity, hot water, heating and air conditioning, and windows, walls and insulation.

The Home Energy Diet involves readers in learning about their own homes by: measuring, metering, investigating and considering habits related to household energy use; learning how to quantify energy consumption and cost and making informed decisions about cost-effective improvements and upgrades. The book explores the misunderstood concept of efficiency versus cost by comparing fuel costs and equipment choices, including the possibility of using renewable energy for meeting home energy needs. This authoritative guide makes efficiency fun through personal anecdotes and humorous tales-from-the-basement energy misadventures.

About the author:

Paul Scheckel is an energy auditor who has visited thousands of homes, educating people about energy efficiency, cost-effective improvements and indoor air quality. With a passion for efficiency and renewables, he walks the talk by living in a solar-powered house and driving a car powered by vegetable oil in his home state of Vermont.

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If you're considering a solar or wind system for your home or business, this book is a valuable resource. The authors explain how installing a solar or wind system is an economically attractive and environmentally responsible option.

From Vermont to California homeowners are plugging in to a hot new idea — reducing or eliminating their electric bills by using free energy from the sun and wind. In this straight-talking new book, authors Rex Ewing and Doug Pratt tell other grid-connected homeowners how to capture alternative energy and put it to use in their home.

Renewable energy is going mainstream, thanks to affordable new technologies with rebates and incentives from many states. Today more and more homeowners believe that installing a home RE system is the economically-attractive and environmentally-responsible thing to do. Whether they install a solar/wind system to benefit their checkbooks or to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, they also enjoy the added independence of a more self-sufficient lifestyle.

The authors know firsthand how these systems work: Rex Ewing, author of Power With Nature, has lived off-the-grid in the Colorado Rockies since 1999; and Doug Pratt, the former technical editor of the Solar Living Sourcebook, lives in a grid-tied home in northern California, and has been on the front lines of the renewable energy revolution since 1985.

The book covers battery back-up versus non-battery systems, as well as equipment needed and installation considerations. Other topics include legal and safety issues, incentives/rebates, and permits and paperwork. An extensive appendix of resources, state energy offices, system sizing worksheets, and much more turns this 160 page book filled with over 120 photos and illustrations into a must-have book for anyone interested in exploring their power options.

Contents:

• Why invest in renewable energy for your home?
• Is it legal and safe?
• How solar electricity works
• Batteries or not?
• Sizing your system
• Got Wind?
• What does it cost?
• Any financial help out there?
• Permits & Paperwork
• The Nuts & Bolts: what to look for, what to avoid
• Who does the installation?
• Appendix: manufacturers, web resources, state energy, offices, sizing worksheets, glossary and more

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This new book confronts the ecological and cultural problems associated with the way we acquire and use energy. It also explains how it is possible to live in a beautifully designed home using much less energy — anywhere in the world.

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Fossil fuels—oil, coal, and natural gas—make up 90 percent of the world’s energy sources. They provoke wars, make us ill, and endanger the planet. They’re running out—and, in case you haven’t noticed, they cost a lot these days. Have you ever felt like declaring your independence? Can the average homeowner begin to move away from traditional energy sources without pulling out of society? The answer is Yes! A revolution is afoot and it’s happening quietly in homes across America and beyond.

Energy Independence is the essential guide to the most viable and affordable alternative energy solutions—solar panels, wind generators, hydrogen fuel cells, wood, hydroelectric, geothermal heat pumps, and more. Whether you want to supplement your traditional fuel-burning furnace or revamp your home, this book has what you need to get started. You’ll learn about the most advanced options that have become available to the consumer as well as tried-and-true energy conservation techniques. You’ll learn the cost of each method, and how quickly you will recoup any investment.

Energy Independence is for anyone—urbanite, suburbanite, or rural dweller—who relies on traditional oil-burning sources but has decided that it’s high time to be proactive about cutting fuel costs and achieving freedom from fossil fuel dependence.