Easy-to-understand, accurate, and comprehensive, this is the guide for anyone interested in installing a solar electric system.

Power from the Sun provides a basic understanding of electricity, solar energy and the sun, and solar site assessment. It discusses the types of photovoltaics (PVs) and PV systems, advances in PVs, charge controllers, inverters, batteries, and generators, as well as the installation and maintenance of a PV system.

This book is written for the layperson and is designed to raise the solar electricity literacy of readers. It provides a great overview of the many options available and is designed to help homeowners make wise decisions during the design, purchase, and installation of solar electric systems—and save a lot of money.

Providing readers with the knowledge necessary to communicate effectively with PV installers, Power From the Sun is a great guide for homeowners, business owners, installers, architects, building department officials, utility company employees, and just about anyone else who wants to lower their energy bills or achieve greater energy independence.

Dan Chiras is president of Sustainable Systems Design, Inc., a residential renewable energy and green building consulting firm, and is director of The Evergreen Institute’s Center for Renewable Energy and Green Building, which offers workshops on residential renewable energy and green building. He is an internationally acclaimed speaker and author and has published twenty-five books, including The Homeowner’s Guide to Renewable Energy and Power from the Wind.

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In this new comprehensive volume, Chiras includes chapters on green building materials, earth-sheltered architecture, passive solar heating and cooling, sustainable approaches to water and waste, energy efficiency, and environmental landscaping. He sets the record strait on the vast potential for passive heating and cooling and provides a resource guide, recommendations, and a green-building checklist....

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
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.

Dan Chiras has studied renewable energy and energy efficiency for three decades and has installed several renewable energy systems. He lives in a self-designed passive solar/solar electric home. An award-winning author of over 20 books, he is a sustainability design consultant who teaches courses on renewable energy, green building, and sustainability at Colorado College.

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Superbia! is a book of practical ideas for creating more socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable neighborhoods. It is about remaking suburban and urban neighborhoods to serve people better and to reduce human impact on the environment.

The authors first trace the history of the suburbs, showing how they fail to meet many peoples’ needs. They then describe how existing neighborhoods can be transformed, offering cohousing and new urbanist communities as examples. The reader is then guided through the transformation of a fictitious neighborhood that adopts the authors’ thirty-one steps. Ideas for the blossoming of the suburb are described in order of difficulty, from easy to boldest, including:

the creation of a neighborhood newsletter to foster a sense of neighborhood identity and cooperation
regular community dinners, discussion groups, and baby-sitting co-ops
the removal of backyard fences to create park-like spaces for community play areas, or gardens
retrofitting homes for energy efficiency, and installing community energy systems.

Examples from all over North America and beyond provide real-life proof that citizen planners can create Superbia! And the most comprehensive resource listing imaginable puts all the tools needed at your fingertips.

Well-illustrated and reader-friendly, Superbia! is written primarily for the millions who live in urban areas or existing suburbs. It will also be of major interest to environmentalists, planners, and all who want to create a more humane and nurturing lifestyle.

Dan Chiras is the author of nineteen books including The Natural Plaster Book (New Society Publishers, 2003) and over 200 articles, a contributing editor to Mother Earth News, and an adjunct professor at Colorado College.

Dave Wann has produced six video programs on community, is coauthor of Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic and two other books about design. Both live in Colorado.

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