Enrich your life--and your wallet--by incorporating alternative energy into your daily home life. A new TAB Green Guru Guide, this book offers authoritative, practical, and fun do-it-yourself projects and tips for greening your home.

Renewable Energies for Your Home covers biodiesel, ethanol, CNG, hydrogen, electricity, waste vegetable oil, and biomass. You will find the following information for each fuel: how it works; carbon footprint; efficiency; strengths; drawbacks; where to get it; applications; a dabbler's guide; and tips. Projects include solar water heaters, solar curtains, small wind turbines, a vegetable oil-powered diesel engine-generator, and more.

Publisher:

McGraw-Hill/Tab Electronics

ISBN:

9780071622851

Publication date:

July 2009

Length:

231mm

Width:

183mm

Thickness:

15mm

Weight:

386g

Pages:

208

Illustrations:

Illustrated

Illustrated:

Illustrated

• 1. Introduction Why do we need solutions? Problems with current fuels
• How current fuels can be put to better use 2. Biodiesel How it works
• Carbon footprint
• Efficiency
• Strengths
• Drawbacks
• Where to get it
• Applications
• A Dabbler's Guide
• Tips 3. Ethanol How it works
• Carbon footprint
• Efficiency
• Strengths
• Drawbacks
• Where to get it
• Applications
• A Dabbler's Guide
• Tips 4. Carbon Natural Gas How it works
• Carbon footprint
• Efficiency
• Strengths
• Drawbacks
• Where to get it
• Applications
• A Dabbler's Guide
• Tips 5. Hydrogen How it works
• Carbon footprint
• Efficiency
• Strengths
• Drawbacks
• Where to get it
• Applications
• A Dabbler's Guide
• Tips 6. Electric/hybrid How it works
• Carbon footprint
• Efficiency
• Strengths
• Drawbacks
• Where to get it
• Applications
• A Dabbler's Guide
• Tips 7. Waste Vegetable Oil How it works
• Carbon footprint
• Efficiency
• Strengths
• Drawbacks
• Where to get it
• Applications
• A Dabbler's Guide
• Tips 8. BioMass How it works
• Carbon footprint
• Efficiency
• Strengths
• Drawbacks
• Where to get it
• Applications
• A Dabbler's Guide
• Tips 9. Conclusion We dug ourselves into a hole by choosing one solution for all our problems: fossil fuels. All of these fuels add to a solution. Biodiesel has the most potential short-term effect, but cellulosic ethanol and electric are excellent components. But we want to avoid choosing one solution and winding up back in the same place. 10. Sources