A Primer on Sustainable Building

by Dianna Lopez Barnett & William D. Browning. Written for architects, developers, general contractors, landscapers, and home owners, this book demonstrates how a holistic approach to design can result in a building even better than the sum of its parts. Topics include site and habitat restoration, transportation integration, edible landscapes, energy-efficient design, materials selection, indoor air quality, and cost implications, plus an extensive bibliography and source lists.

"A must for those who wish to positively affect the lives of future generations by the way that they choose to build and develop throughout this land...a cornerstone for any sustainable building project."-Susan Maxman, 1995,1998,1999, 2004 AIA president. 3rd edition. Softcover, $16.95. Call our toll free number to order thi sbook 888.320.9211.

Be more environmentally responsible, live better, and save money: this book will show you how. A how-to guide for homeowners, it features hundreds of tips on weatherization, insulation, heating and cooling systems, windows, hot-water heating, appliances, and lighting, plus advice on incorporating solar and other efficient design elements into new construction. 1st edition. Softcover, $17.95.

This book is a simple and entertaining introduction to solar electricity. This second edition has been expanded and updated with a lot of 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 from junior high up. Although written for the Amerian market, its content applies in principle all over the world.

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 straight on the vast potential for passive heating and cooling and provides a resource guide, recommendations, and a green-building checklist.

A comprehensive guide to using wind to power private houses, small businesses and farms. It describes and illustrates the wide range of systems now commercially available, suggests criteria for citing, includes equations for figuring out the power potential of various sizes in various conditions and discusses legal and safety issues.

by Greg Pahl. Natural Home Heating is the first comprehensive guide to heating your home with renewable energy sources. Greg Pahl offers a well-organized, easy-to-understand tour of all available renewable home-heating options, including wood-, pellet-, corn- and grain-fired stoves, fireplaces, furnaces and boilers as well as masonry heaters, active and passive solar systems, and heat pumps. Learn how to burn environmentally friendly biodiesel fuels, not just in your car, but in your furnace or boiler. Included is everything you need to know about the fuels, systems, technologies, costs, and advantages and disadvantages of each option. Pahl teaches homeowners how to retrofit existing heating systems and choose renewable replacements, or design an entirely new house that can be heated comfortably with minimal environmental and financial impact.

If you live in the country or suburbs, you've had, are having, or will have water problems.

What's yours? Not enough water? Too much? Tastes terrible? The pump quits? The water's contaminated?

No matter what it is, author Stu Campbell addresses it in this book, and offers down-to-earth solutions in language understandable to all of us who aren't plumbers.

Campbell had coped with water problems in both the East and the West, from the many-state shortages of the West to a cantankerous pump in Vermont. And he's probed the minds of experts -- dowsers, well diggers, plumbers, electricians, and those who know about the flow of water deep underground.

In a friendly, knowledgeable manner, Campbell discusses your difficulties. He provides concrete and money-saving answers to questions that range from locating water to digging a pond to hooking up the plumbing in your home. You'll know when to try something yourself and when to call a plumber or other expert.

A wonderful little book that will go right beside its big sister, "The Straw Bale House"... my bible while I was building my own straw bale home. Straw bale is a wonderful (if not labor-intensive) building method with infinite possibilities for being beautiful...this little book shows some of that to you!

Make the most of natural sunlight with details that lend an open, airy feel to well-planned interior spaces.These beautiful, unique homes show how skylights, transoms and clerestory windows brighten any living space. Atriums, solariums and greenhouses also featured. Homes from 1,346 to 7,275 square feet. Complete construction drawings available separately.

From crystal clear theory and calculations to execution, this book is a catalog of daylighting strategies, materials, and methods of construction. A concise, authoritative resource for professionals and advocates of environmentally sensitive architectural design. Included are: design strategies; calculation procedures; case studies, and integration with lighting systems.

Architecture/Environment. How to design buildings that heat with the sun, cool with the wind, light with the sky, and move into the future using on-site renewable resources. Developed for rapid use during schematic design, this book clarifies relationships between form and energy and gives designers tools for designing sustainably. It also: applies the latest passive energy and lighting design research. organizes information by architectural elements at three scales: building groups, individual buildings, and building parts, Brings design strategies to life with examples and practical design tools. Features:109 analysis techniques and design strategies. More than 750 illustrations, sizing graphs, and tables. Both inch-pound and metric units.

Passive solar heating and passive cooling—approaches known as natural conditioning—provide comfort throughout the year by reducing, or eliminating, the need for fossil fuel. While heat from sunlight and ventilation from breezes is free for the taking, few modern architects or builders really understand the principles involved.

Now Dan Chiras, author of the popular book "The Natural House," brings those principles up to date for a new generation of solar enthusiasts.

In "The Solar House," Chiras sets the record straight on the vast potential for passive heating and cooling. Acknowledging the good intentions of misguided solar designers in the past, he highlights certain egregious errors and shows how to avoid them. More importantly, Chiras explains in methodical detail how today’s home builders can succeed with solar designs.

By Joshua Tickell, Kaia Tickell. From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank is the first and only book that details all aspects of running diesel engines on vegetable oil. Includes information on biodiesel, the diesel fuel substitute made from new or used vegetable oil, as well as information on running any diesel engine on straight vegetable oil (SVO). This book is packed with history, information, instructions, photos, diagrams and resources. If you want to stop supporting Mid-East Petroleum oil, you must get this book.

by Mark Freeman This book is about how you design and build a house heated by the sun with a wood stove back up. This type of house is an ideal candidate to become a UtilityFree™ home. He shows that a home does not need a "furnace" as most of us typically assume. And best of all the author lives in East Greenwich, New York, he is NOT in sunny Colorado or Arizona! If you plan to build your own home, this book should be in your library.

The world's most complete and user-friendly book about energy conservation. Use it to reduce your utility costs and protect the environment in all kinds of heating, cooling, lighting, and water systems, in building structures, and in industrial equipment, from the smallest to the largest. Learn how to purchase energy economically and how to use renewable resources and free energy sources reliably.

Students, teachers, conservation advocates, government officials, and media people use it is a reference to all the important topics of energy conservation. Owners, property managers, and plant operators use it as a handbook for efficient operation. Architects, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, construction managers, and contractors use it as a design guide for energy efficient buildings and plants.

All the detailed options described in this new solar energy book are available now. Solar water heating and cost-effective solar electricity systems are explained along with other appli-cations, such as solar cooking, solar refrigeration, and dozens of other low-cost, proven and reliable ideas.

If you would like to recycle/reuse water for a landscaping system you will want to use this as a guide for plumbing, health considerations, suppliers, maintenance and more. This second edition presents principles to use as a guide for breaking new ground, as well as an expanded range of proven designs. Easy to understand illustrations and clear text make this a very accessible source of information.

"The best resource on greywater that I have found. A must have for anyone designing or installing a greywater system. This thorough booklet presents almost every design variation on greywater systems, from the simplest to the most complex, and gives the pros, cons and approximate cost of each both in dollars and environmental terms."

David Dobbs, Senior Contributing Editor, Harrowsmith Country Life.