Bookstore: Alternative Energy

Living Without Electricity - Stephan Scott and Kenneth Pullman.  This one-of-a-kind book tells how and why the Amish live without inventions other people take for granted. Filled with details through heart-warming stories on the simplicity of the Amish lifestyle.

Build Your Own Earth Oven:  A Low-Cost, Wood-Fired Mud Oven - Kiko Denzer.   A fully-illustrated handbook for making a simple, wood-fired, masonry-style oven.  It provides clear, step-by-step instructions for building and firing the oven, as well as complete directions for making sourdough bread in the best (and simplest artisan tradition).

Achieving Energy Independence - One Step at a Time - Jeffrey R. Yago.  A must have first text for any homeowner wanting to install a back up power system for their home or home business.  Addresses new ways to prepare for power outages including brownouts, storm outages, and rolling blackouts.  Step by step guide to become independent of the utility grid.  .
 

The Passive Solar House - James Kachadorian  This book offers a technique for building homes that heat and cool themselves in a wide range of different climates, using ordinary building materials available anywhere and with methods familiar to all building contractors and many do-it-yourselfers.

The Book of Masonry Stoves:  Rediscovering an Old Way of Warming - David Lyle.  Within the past decade, millions of Americans have discovered the economic benefits and personal pleasures of heating with wood. At the same time, many have discovered that there are serious problems associated with wood heat and iron stove chimney fires from air pollution. The masonry stove, widely used in Europe and Asia for centuries surmises these problems.  Masonry stoves offer good solutions to many of the problems associated with wood burning. They provide clean combustion at a high temperature, good efficiency, a high degree of safety and little or no pollution.

Real Goods Solar Living Source Book: The Complete Guide to Renewable Energy Technologies and Sustainable Living - John Schaeffer (Editor), Doug Pratt (Editor).  It is arguably a form of cultural insanity that industrial civilizations constantly bathed by free and clean energy from the sky (the sun and the wind) continue to depend upon dirty and limited chemical fuels that poison the people, their foods, and the land upon which they depend.  Happily, this comprehensive sourcebook provides those of you with foresight a way out of this madness; it includes products ranging from simple energy-saving devices such as compact fluorescent lights to home-scale energy-harvesting systems that utilize the sun, wind, and water to make electricity for people living "off-the-grid."

Wind Energy Basics: A Guide to Small and Micro Wind Systems - Paul Gipe (Preface), Karen Perez. Clearly presented material while still maintaining enough of the technical formulas and rules-of-thumb to have substance, the author lays out the options open to anyone interested in implementing some sort of home-based electrical generation wind system and surveys a range of available products that fall into this area of the wind turbine market. I

The Solar Electric House: Energy for the Environmentally-Responseive, Energy-Independent Home - Steven J. Strong, William G. Scheller (Contributor).  Solar Electricity is the ideal source of power for an environmentally-responsive home whether it is a luxury residence or a rustic vacation retreat. This book will tell you everything you need to know to decide if photovoltaics are for you.
 

Using Sunlight For Your Own Solar - Ralph W. Ritchie.  Building a solar electric system sounds complex and highly technical. It could be. There are ways to do it with the average knowledge and skills of today's home owner. Today, it is possible to get all the technical help about sizing and component selection from the technicians that most solar suppliers employ.

The Easy Guide to Solar Electric - Adi Pieper.  This book is a simple and entertaining introduction to solar electric. This second edition has been expanded and updated with many new and more detailed information on solar electric and wind generators. This is not a "how to" book, it rather gives the reader an overview for a basic understanding of how photovoltaic systems work. Also included are many practical tips about solar products, names and numbers, as well as which products work or don't work in solar applications. This book comes complete with index, glossary, charts, and many funny drawings. The whimsical style of this book makes it easy reading for those not technically inclined. It is also highly recommended for teenagers starting at junior high school grade. Although written for the American market it's content applies in principal all over the world.