Solar Electricity Basics A Green Energy Guide

The indispensable guide to solar electricity systems for homeowners, business owners, builders, and students Climate change and limits to fossil fuels compel us to find safer, more economical, and more sustainable ways to meet our needs for electricity. And, as more and more electric cars hit the road, we'll need to find a way to provide fuel that is clean, environmentally sustainable, and affordable. With Solar Electricity Basics, author Dan Chiras offers a concise and up-to-date guide covering all the essentials. It explores: How to size, cost, and choose the right system, including off-grid vs. grid-tied vs grid-tied with battery backup Where to mount a system for maximum performance What type of modules and inverters to buy How to install and maintain batteries Cost vs benefit for solar electric systems How to connect to the grid, and what type of net metering your area offers. Solar Electricity Basics is an indispensable guide for homeowners, business owners, builders, and students for figuring out solar electricity quickly and easily.

The future will be powered by renewables. As we transition away from finite and polluting fossil fuels, clean, reliable, and affordable renewable technologies such as solar electricity will become the mainstay of our energy supply. Solar Electricity Basics provides a clear understanding of electricity and energy. It discusses the types of solar electric system you can choose from, their components, solar site assessment, the installation of photovoltaic systems, and much more. Whether your goal is to lower your energy bill or to achieve complete energy independence, Solar Electricity Basics is the introduction you need.

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.

Wind energy is the fastest growing source of energy in the world, and by the year 2020 it is projected to supply at least 12 percent of global electrical demand. Wind Power Basics provides a clear understanding of wind and wind energy systems, including turbines, towers, inverters and batteries, site assessment, installation, and maintenance requirements. Whether you’re considering your own small-scale wind energy system or just want a straightforward, detailed introduction to the benefits and challenges of this rapidly emerging technology, Wind Power Basics is the guide you need. Dan Chiras is a respected educator and an internationally acclaimed author who has published more than twenty-five books on residential renewable energy and green building, including Power From the Wind.

Ever wanted to save on electricity bills and without being dependent on energy? Want to protect your family from regular power outages and the negligence of local utilities? Your desire may be to get your energy bill lowered or be independent of the payment all together. Then Solar energy is the answer to all your expensive energy consumption. Solar power is the most abundant of all renewable resources available. It is essentially a source of achieving safe energy for household. It takes free power from the sun and uses it to power electrical equipment. More importantly, solar power does not harm the earth. Of course, it's not that simple. But solar power alone is a powerful resource with applications and benefits around the world. This book, SOLAR POWER: The best guide for solar electricity systems, for off-grid solar systems and for your home energy independence, it helps you achieve this by understanding the basics of solar components and using solar power. This easy-to-read solar component guide, written to explains all components of a photovoltaic system in a way that is easy for anyone with no technical background to understand. Based on a thousand hours of research and experience, the book contains practical solar information that cannot be found and applied by searching the web alone. This book shades lights in the following ways: How to know what solar power system to buy How to avoid the common mistakes, tricks and traps that salesmen will try to feed you How to size your solar power system so it will fit perfectly on your roof A step to step guide to installing your solar power systems and panels How to determine how many watts your house needs How solar power/panel works This book is useful to a wide range of readers, including technical and non-technical people, beginners and advanced solar power professionals, and engineering experts. This bestselling book answers all these questions and shows you how to use the power of the sun to generate electricity yourself. This amazing step to step guide on solar energy book is a practical and straightforward guide to using photovoltaic solar panels and all you will need to get it installed. Read this amazing book to discover all about solar energy, its benefit and how to get it working for you.

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.