Warm and Cool Homes


Book Description

*** VIDEO SERIES INCLUDED WITH BOOK *** "From an authoritative source, this book provides both information and inspiration for how to make your home part of the solution to our great climate crisis. It will get you thinking - and then get you moving ahead!" -Bill McKibben, Author of The End of Nature If you spend more than $500 a year for utilities then this book is for you! Follow the design and building of four Net Zero homes, learn and understand the simple principles they use to make their houses so comfortable and affordable. About the Author: "Wes is very enthusiastic and passionate about his work. Together, with his dedication to energy efficient building practices and his understanding of the practical obstacles builders face result in a better product for consumers in New Hampshire." AN - NH Public Utilities Commission "His insight into the complex issues associated with the entire energy field is an extreme asset to the task at hand. He approaches everything with a respect for the history of how the energy field has evolved and with measured reflection of the future." TG - Lakes Region Community College "Wes has a knack for making complex material easy for us non-science people to understand" Student - LRCC What Homeowners are saying about their net-zero homes: "The most comfortable house I have ever lived in. It Is comfortable year round." MM - Newmarket, NH "I haven't had a sinus headache since I moved in." RH - Canterbury, NH "My wife used to have six asthma attacks a year. She hasn't had any in the two and a half years we've lived here." JB - Barrington, NH "We've spent under $1500 for utilities in the past two years and got more than $600 back from renewable energy credits." KH - Canterbury, NH Whether you own your own home or are thinking of building or renovating, this book and video series is packed with practical ideas for you that work. TheEnergyGeek.org




Cool Homes in Hot Places


Book Description

Cool Homes in Hot Places showcases real homes from the hottest territories around the world. Featuring a wide variety of environments and styles—from wilderness to hillside, from waterside to woodside, and from cultivated to streetside—this book shows how careful decisions around layout, materials, color, and furniture can create elegant yet functional and comfortable spaces in even the world's hottest climates. By designing each home holistically and taking into consideration all of the factors that impact the site—the occupants, region, climate, terrain, culture, and resources—Cool Homes in Hot Places will show any architect, interior designer, or homeowner the key to staying cool in any warm climate.




Warm House Cool House


Book Description

This book does more than just explain the benefits of low-energy dwellings (lower power bills and more comfortable surroundings) and how average Australians can achieve them. It inspires and encourages the reader with examples of beautiful and comfortable homes that are energy-efficient and immensely livable. Illustrated throughout with photos, sketches and plans (including a colour section), all the examples are Australian from all our different climatic zones.




Warm House, Cool House


Book Description

"Provides valuable advice, illustrated by more than 100 inspiring contemporary examples of low-energy housing design, to help keep our homes cool in summer and warm in winter with little or no cooling and heating by appliances." - cover.




Home Sweet Zero Energy Home


Book Description

This practical guidebook to zero energy homes focuses on real costs and savings, exploring such topics as site selection and passive design, heating and cooling, and financial resources and incentives. Original.







Pretty Good House


Book Description

Pretty Good House provides a framework and set of guidelines for building or renovating a high-performance home that focus on its inhabitants and the environment--but keeps in mind that few people have pockets deep enough to achieve a "perfect" solution. The essential idea is for homeowners to work within their financial and practical constraints both to meet their own needs and do as much for the planet as possible. A Pretty Good House is: * A house that's as small as possible * Simple and durable, but also well designed * Insulated and air-sealed * Above all, it is affordable, healthy, responsible, and resilient.




Bioclimatic Housing


Book Description

In the search for sustainable architecture, there is growing interest in the relationship between nature and design. In this vital new book, the termbioclimatic relating to the dynamic between climate and living organisms, is applied by the authors in focusing on countries where housing requires cooling for a significant part of the year. In this context, Bioclimatic Housing covers creative, vernacular architecture to present both the theory and practice of innovative, low-energy architecture. The book interweaves the themes of social progress, technological fixes and industry transformation within a discussion of global and country trends, climate types, solutions and technologies. Prepared under the auspices of a 5-year International Energy Agency (IEA) project, and with case studies from Iran, Malaysia, Australia, Japan, Sri Lanka and Italy, this is a truly international and authoritative work, providing an essential primer for building designers, builders, developers and advanced students in architecture and engineering.




Positive Energy Homes


Book Description

Positive energy homes enable people to live healthy and comfortable lives with energy left over to share. Creating a house you love that produces surplus energy is surprisingly easy with a thorough understanding of how buildings work and careful attention to detail in construction. The Passive House standard, with its well-proven track record, forms the basis for creating positive energy homes. This book explores the Passive House ‘fabric first’ approach, as well as the science and practicalities of effective ventilation strategies, smart options for heating and cooling, daylight harvesting, and efficient lighting and appliances. Positive Energy Homes provides home owners world-wide, architects and builders with an understanding of the principles and technical details of building these houses.




The Passive Solar House


Book Description

Revised and Expanded Edition - Includes CD-ROM with Custom Design Software For the past ten years The Passive Solar House has offered proven techniques for building homes that heat and cool themselves, using readily available materials and methods familiar to all building contractors and many do-it-yourself homeowners. True to this innovative, straightforward approach, the new edition of this best-selling guide includes CSOL passive solar design software, making it easier than ever to heat your home with the power of the sun. Since The Passive Solar House was first published, passive solar construction expert James Kachadorian has perfected user-friendly, Windows-compatible software to supplement the design process explained in the book by allowing homeowners/designers to enter the specifications of their design and see how changing a variable will affect its energy efficiency. This is the building book for a world of climbing energy costs. Applicable to diverse regions, climates, budgets, and styles of architecture, Kachadorian's techniques translate the essentials of timeless solar design into practical wisdom for today's solar builders. Profiles of successful passive solar design, construction, and retrofit projects from readers of the first edition provide inspiration to first-time homebuilders and renovators alike.