Solar Home Heating Basics: A Green Energy Guide

Solar Home Heating Basics: A Green Energy Guide Review

As fossil fuel supplies dwindle, home heating will be one of the major challenges in temperate and cold climates in upcoming years. The reserves of natural gas used to heat the majority of North American buildings are rapidly being depleted. This latest Green Energy Guide helps readers who want to slash their energy bills and reduce their dependence on scarce resources to navigate the sometimes confusing maze of clean, reliable, and affordable options.

Solar Home Heating Basics focuses on renewable energy strategies to heat new and existing homes and small businesses. These include:

• Energy efficiency, weatherization, and insulation
• Solar hot air heating
• Solar thermal systems
• Passive solar heating
• Backup heating systems

While most solar home heating resources are geared primarily towards new buildings, this practical guide addresses ways of retrofitting existing buildings, making solar a reality for many people.

Packed with all the essential information home and small business owners need to find alternatives to conventional heating solutions, Solar Home Heating Basics is your key to a personal energy solution.

Dan Chiras is a respected educator and the author of thirty books on residential renewable energy and green building, including The Homeowner's Guide to Renewable Energy and Power from the Sun. Dan is the director and lead instructor at the Evergreen Institute's Center for Renewable Energy and Green Building, where he teaches workshops on energy efficiency, solar electricity, solar hot water, small wind energy, green building, natural plasters, and natural building.

Losing Edison: Beautiful, Sustainable Lighting at Home

Losing Edison: Beautiful, Sustainable Lighting at Home Review

With all of the confusion and media hype surrounding the phasing out of the incandescent light bulb, it's easy to understand why home owners are frustrated. Losing Edison is a simple introduction to residential lighting design that begins with the incandescent phase out, and then guides the reader through the basic principles of good lighting at home.

Ultimately, the aim of this book is to give homeowners the basic knowledge and common language they need to engage interior designers, lighting designers, architects and contractors in a learned discussion about lighting.

So whether you're about to renovate your kitchen or just want to know what light bulbs to buy, Losing Edison has something for everyone that wants to live in more beautiful, sustainable light.

Here's what Apartment Therapy had to say:

"The book is filled with easy to understand, useful information including the most recent information on incandescent regulations. Bedell explains which types of incandescents are being phased out, when this will happen and why.

And while the book includes some technical information, it is not just for those interested in the science of the bulb. The book is organized so that the most practical and applicable information about bulb types and lighting design is easy to find and to understand. Sustainability tips are peppered in along the way in this book which aims to help "boost our collective effort to reduce energy and resource consumption."