Let The Sun Rain Down On Your Solar solidifies abstract ideas and dreams into concrete form explaining How To Build And Power A Perfect Off-Grid Home. How? Spanfelner, who built a remote off-grid home with husband Gary 9 years ago, offers practical advice to navigate the complex, perplexing process - simplifying it with step-by-step instructions.

"This book is for anyone who is thinking about or already living off grid and wants to learn how to build simple solar homesteading projects to make life easier. Included in this book are complete plans for several projects and all plans include pictures, step by step directions, cost and material list. Also included is an invaluable resource list for homesteaders to find just about anything they need under the sun. 1. a sturdy solar cabin for under $2000 2. a solar panel and generator energy system for under $1000 3. a solar composting toilet for under $50 4. a solar batch water heater for under $50 5. a solar food dehydrator for under $50 6. a super solar oven for under $50 7. a sturdy garden cart for under $50 8. a portable chicken tractor for under $50 x. resource and vendor list for all kinds of homesteading supplies."--Publisher's description.

A beautiful, user-friendly overview to building more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly homes using prefabrication. Prefabulous + Almost Off the Grid explores the many ways of using prefabrication to build beautiful homes that are not only environmentally friendly, but also incredibly energy efficient. Profiling more than thirty of the most energy-efficient homes in the United States, this user-friendly guide reveals how homebuilders can achieve similar results—whether they want to earn an advanced green certification or just incorporate a few energy-saving measures—with the help of floor plans, detailed resource lists, explanations of the latest technologies, and brilliant photographs. Author Sheri Koones shows that building green doesn’t have to be more expensive, and in fact, can lead to dramatic savings. Koones’s almost-off-the-grid homes, which take energy from the grid when necessary and return any excess energy produced, are healthier, quieter inside, and far cheaper to operate. As energy costs continue to rise, energy independence is becoming increasingly essential, and as this guide shows, the almost-off-the-grid home is a solution that is achievable for everyone. Recipient of the 2013 Robert Bruss Gold Book Award from the National Association of Real Estate Editors (NAREE) Praise for Prefabulous + Almost Off the Grid “The time has come to throw out the old stereotypes and to embrace prefab building techniques as the way of the future?and the best approach for today. For anyone wanting to create a house that’s sustainable in every sense of the word, this book is an excellent place to start.” —Sarah Susanka, architect and author of The Not So Big House series “You can build a high quality, environmentally friendly and efficient home at a reasonable price with a look and feel of a traditional home. Advancements like those used in our house and the other houses in this book will transform the homebuilding industry.” —Christine Todd Whitman, former governor of New Jersey and administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency “This is an easy-on-the-eyes guide that includes floor plans and multiple images of the exterior and interior of each home. It is not a manual for green construction, but a general overview of aspects of prefab and green construction. And it does that well.” —Natural Life magazine

This book is a unique look into one of the most unusual building techniques - underground installation of shipping containers - finished out into a very modern, energy efficient home that has proven to be a delight to live in. Detailed how-to instructions from start to finish give the reader a real handle on how they could build this home for themselves successfully and enjoy the wonderful benefits of living underground and off the grid. A real must for those who are considering cutting the city ties and venturing out into the country to establish a successful homestead. Well worth a read!

Off-Grid House Plans has more than 250 floor plans, sections, sketches, and elevations, as well as all the construction details in all projects. An Off-Grid system allows you to live without using a utility company, generating your own energy. A well designed system also has numerous environmental advantages, that help you to reduce your carbon footprint, providing cleaner, more sustainable energy. In the long-term it is financially viable, and also teaches us how to consume energy responsibly. These off-grid homes, which run on solar, wind, or hydro power, are just a few examples of how people are leaving the city behind for a life in the country in contact with nature.

Let The Sun Rain Down On Your Solar solidifies abstract ideas and dreams into concrete form explaining How To Build And Power A Perfect Off-Grid Home. How? Spanfelner, who built a remote off-grid home with husband Gary 9 years ago, offers practical advice to navigate the complex, perplexing process - simplifying it with step-by-step instructions.

Off Grid and Free: My Path to the Wilderness is the story of the journey Ron Melchiore undertook as a young man from the city, first to homesteading in northern Maine and then to living in the bush of northern Saskatchewan. He has lived off grid since approximately 1980 and speaks candidly about the joys and the tribulations of his chosen lifestyle. In this adventure, Ron shares the diversity of his experiences in an easy-to-read, humorous, and sometimes harrowing narrative. The book includes his hiking of the 2,100 mile Appalachian Trail in winter, bicycling across the United States, homesteading off grid, the terror of being surrounded by a wildfire, surprise encounters with bears, and more. For readers with an outdoors spirit, people with an off grid and self-sufficiency bent, and dreamers who like to read about adventure, Ron hopes to inspire others to "take the road less traveled."

Bestselling Van Life author Foster Huntington shares his experiences - as well as others - living by his own rules in this aspirational book filled with awe-inspiring photographs of unique homes in unexpected places. After spending three years on the road living in a camper van, Foster Huntington continued his unconventional lifestyle by building a two-story treehouse. Foster, like many others, are finding freedom, tranquility, and adventure in living off the grid in unconventional homes. Perfect for fans of Van Life and Cabin Porn and those who yearn for a simpler existence, Off Grid Life showcases unique dwellings from all around the world. Organized into sections like tree houses, tiny houses, shipping containers, yurts, boathouses, barns, vans, and more, the 250 aspirational photographs feature enviable settings like stunning beaches, dramatic mountains and picturesque forests. Also included are images of fully designed interiors with kitchens and sleeping quarters as well as interviews with solo dwellers, couples, and families who are living lives off the beaten path.

The transition to clean energy is moving far too slowly. Trapped by a century of fossil fuel investments and politicians that struggle to plan beyond the next election, the "Big Grid" that powers our modern world is outdated and in dire need of an upgrade. Freeing Energy offers a new and faster path towards a clean energy future-one that is more reliable, more equitable, and cheaper. Just like personal computers eclipsed mainframes, millions of solar rooftops and small battery systems are challenging every assumption about our century-old, centralized electric grid. These small-scale "local energy" systems are deeply disruptive because they are based on fast-moving technologies, not fuels. Driven by a new generation of innovators and genuinely competitive markets, smaller systems are faster to build, easier to finance, cleaner to operate, and they create far more jobs than large-scale projects. Bill Nussey takes readers to mud huts in Africa, an off-grid farm in California, and a rural school in the mountains of Puerto Rico to uncover the underlying patterns of technology and the business model innovations of the local energy revolution. He shares stories and insights from some of the industry's brightest visionaries and from leaders of the most cutting-edge startups, bringing it all together into an actionable framework to help accelerate this transition. Freeing Energy is a deeply researched, actionable guide for anyone that cares about the future of energy-from startups, policymakers, investors, and utility leaders to the families and communities that want cleaner, cheaper energy today.

The most comprehensive, up-to-date and thoroughly researched book on the topic of composting human manure available anywhere. It includes a review of the historical, cultural and environmental issues pertaining to "human waste," as well as an in depth look at the potential health risks related to humanure recycling, with clear instructions on how to eliminate those dangers in order to safely convert humanure into garden soil. Written by a humanure composter with over thirty years experience, this classic work now includes illustrated, step-by-step instructions on how to build a humanure toilet, a chapter on alternative graywater systems, photos of owner-built humanure toilets from around the world, and an overview of commercial composting toilets and systems.