I recently reviewed a new McGraw-Hill green home book – Renewable Energies for Your Home: Real-World Solutions for Green Conversions by Russel Gehrke; and overall I think it’s a good book for folks looking to create a more sustainable home that won’t cost you a fortune.
Basics:
From the publishers, “Renewable Energies for Your Home offers authoritative, practical, and fun do-it-yourself projects and tips for greening your home and car. Gehrke covers biodiesel, ethanol, CNG, hydrogen, electricity, waste vegetable oil, and biomass, and provides the following information for each fuel: how it works; its carbon footprint; efficiency; strengths; drawbacks; source; applications; a dabbler’s guide; and tips.”
Renewable Energies for Your Home covers:
- Energy savings and environmental benefits
- Biomass fuels, including biodiesel, ethanol, used fryer oil, and wood
- Producing your own biodiesel without titration
- Assembling a biolight grill and fire starter
- Making bioburn-a firewood substitute
- Wind turbines
- Solar lighting, heating, water heating, and electric generation
- Building a solar heat collector
- Creating a wind/solar hybrid electric system
What I thought: Read the rest of this entry »