Your Guide to Getting Off the Grid

by Paul Scheckel

“We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we should be using Nature’s inexhaustible sources of energy–sun, wind and tide. I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.”

Thomas Edison

For those looking for creative ways to lower your energy costs, generate more of their own power, or become less reliant on the grid, energy expert Paul Scheckel offers practical advice for taking matters into their own hands.

Understanding the fundamentals of solar, wind, water, and biofuel energy production can help each of us make our homes ready for renewable power.

Chapters in The Homeowner’s Energy Handbook provide a comprehensive discussion of renewable energy sources along with “green guides” for building energy-saving — and energy-producing — equipment. Step-by-step instructions show how to build a bicycle-powered generator, a biodiesel processor, a thermosiphon solar hot-water collector, a biogas generator, a smokeless wood-gas camp stove, and more.

Whether you want to button up your house to be more energy-efficient, find deep energy savings, or take your home entirely off the grid, this guide delivers the knowledge and skills you need to reduce your use, then produce!

Green Energy Times will soon be reviewing The Homeowner’s Energy Handbook in more detail. For those who want to get a head start before that review appears, it is available from Storey Publishing.

Paul Scheckel will be writing regular columns for Green Energy Times as well, beginning June 15. Be sure to pick up each edition.