The Renewable Energy Handbook: A Guide to Rural Energy Independence, Off-Grid and Sustainable Living | 
| Author: William H. Kemp
Publisher: Aztext Press
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $18.03
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Avg. Customer Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 1650
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 592
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 8.7 x 6 x 1.5
ISBN: 0973323329
Dewey Decimal Number: 621.042
EAN: 9780973323320
ASIN: 0973323329
Publication Date: April 1, 2006
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Product Description
As oil prices continue to rise, many people are starting to think about how to unhook from the power grid. The Renewable Energy Handbook focuses completely on off-grid, sustainable living and energy independence in a rural setting. Author William Kemp and his wife designed their own high-efficiency off-grid home in 1991. They worked methodically to produce a home which has all of the standard "middle-class" creature comforts while using six times less heating, cooling, and electrical energy than the average Ontario home. Soon they were inundated with inquiries and decided to put their experience into book form in 2003. This updated edition focuses specifically on off-grid concerns and contains chapters on: Energy conservation
Heating and cooling
Photovoltaic, wind and microhydro energy generation
Battery selection, voltage regulation and inverters
Backup power Twice the page count of the first edition, it also includes enhanced chapters on home and domestic water heating, wireless communications and biofuels. A "Showcase of Homes" chapter provides a tour of various off-grid cottages and homes, and details the type of lifestyle that can be achieved for a given capital cost. The book is augmented with appendices and hundreds of illustrations, line drawings and photographs. William Kemp is VP Engineering of Powerbase Automation Systems Inc. and a consulting electronics/software designer who develops control systems for low environmental impact hydroelectric utilities worldwide. He is a sustainable living and clean energy advocate working in renewable energy heating, energy efficiency, photovoltaic, microhydro and wind electric systems.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
Highly Recommended Reference May 4, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Kemp's "Renewable Energy Handbook" is an excellent reference on the various R.E. resources available today. It provides insight on the various resources, their use, and their drawbacks in certain situations. Kemp does not try to sway the user in any particular direction. Rather, he provides solid information for the user to make their own decision.
Presentation of various real-world R.E. installations provide the user with some practical info, providing a nice balance to the theory in the book. One item that provided a slight irritation for me is the "preachy-ness" when he covers biofuels, but with the current trend in oil prices and the search for alternates, I'll overlook it since there are also some valid warnings about working with alternate fuels
I highly recommend this as a first-read book for a homeowner considering using any type of R.E. resources. Since R.E. information can change rapidly, make sure you are purchasing the most recent edition.
To be fair...read on... May 1, 2008
0 out of 6 found this review helpful
To be fair, I have not read this book. Why 5 stars? The book is a for-profit venture by the author, so recovery of time, effort, & energy is important for revenue reasons. So why write this review? After spending nearly 12-18 hours perusing AMAZON's book list on solar energy and photovoltaic systems, I was frustrated! None of the reviews on any single book seemed to be convincing enough to make me want to buy. For instance, none of the reviews mention how the books address the National Electric Code, specific wiring and disconnect installation information, electrical and other safety hazards, inspection issues, etc. For a DIY'er, these books seemed a waste of time, never mind the fact that some reviewers insisted they actually DIY'ed just from the book. It then occurred to me that dozens of resources that I had used over the past 10 years - with the exception of 2007 due to extenuating circumstances - many resources are available for free from our fantastic .GOV, .ORG, and .EDU sites like Sandia Nat'l Labs, NREL, NMSU, and CA.GOV. Folks, before you start buying books on PV left & right, be smart and leverage what your fine tax dollars paid for! I have to admit - I believe it's just stupid searching for good PV technical, installation, and detailed literature on a For-Profit Bookstore when so much is already available online for Free. Folks, use your head - our government and academic labs pioneered this from federal tax dollars. Hence, much of it is public domain! (REPLACE all "?" with "." in the following website links.) nabcep?org nmsu?edu/~tdi/index?html photovoltaics?sandia?gov and energy?ca?gov Of course, if you're just not Internet savvy, not an engineer/analytical A-type personality, and highly resourceful, plus you'd rather prefer to kill trees buying a book instead of leveraging online resources that are 100 times more than what's on AMAZON, and most likely don't have the wherewithal to DIY, go ahead. It will be amazing to see how many are simply duped by the thousands of new "get rich quick" companies and businessmen entering the renewable energy markets.
Great solar and sustainable energy home book April 16, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book, in my opinion, is the best overall coverage of energy savings and sustainable energy systems for home owners I have read. There are a few typos but whos cares.
I do think, since I am a chemist, he understates the dangers of handling caustic in the description of preparing biodiesel.
Methanol is flamable but caustic is much worse than acid to handle!
The author obviously has a lot of direct experince with most of the areas he covers and his first chapter is wonderful for anyone whether they contemplate building a truely energy selfsufficient home or not.
I highly recommend the book and compliment the author for writing and publishing it.
 Good overview of reducing dependance on the Grid January 24, 2008
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
I'm building a new house and I want to make sure it's the most energy efficient house I can afford to build, so I got this book to help look at some of the decisions like Solar PV, Solar water heating, Wind and Micro hydroelectric. I have been happy so far, the discussion on insulating so far has been geared toward existing houses but it's interesting to note that insulating the basement may give you a higher payback than more insulation in the attic.
I didn't understand what net-metering allows you to do before reading this book, although living in Georgia makes a PV system cost prohibitive since there are no state rebates.
Solar hot water looks very feasible and should have a pretty quick payback.
Excellent book for layperson designing home December 31, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I bought this book because I wanted a book with more detail than some of the other introductory books. I was not disappointed. Quite good depth for a layman's book, with the necessary equations, tables, charts, etc. Some portions of the book could have some more detail, but the subject matter is so broad, it wasn't so much of a drawback as a stimulus to find more in depth material. The author gives lots of examples and links to further info. I especially liked his introduction of hot water/thermal storage in large tanks for heating domestic hot water or home heating.
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