Natural Home Heating: The Complete Guide to Renewable Energy Options [Paperback]

Greg Pahl (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2003

Natural Home Heating is the first comprehensive guide to heating your home with renewable energy sources. Greg Pahl offers a well-organized, easy-to-understand tour of all available renewable home-heating options, including wood, pellet, corn and grain-fired stoves, fireplaces, furnaces and boilers as well as masonry heaters, active and passive solar systems, and heat pumps. Learn how to burn environmentally friendly biodiesel fuels, not just in your car, but in your furnace or boiler. Included is everything you need to know about the fuels, systems, technologies, costs, and advantages and disadvantages of each option. Pahl teaches homeowners how to retrofit existing heating systems and choose renewable replacements, or design an entirely new house that can be heated comfortably with minimal environmental and financial impact.
Consider:

95% of American homes are heated with fossil fuels or electricity (which is generated mainly by fossil fuels).

Oil and gas prices will continue to rise as supplies dwindle and sources become less reliable.

Home heating costs could double or even triple in the event of a fuel crisis.

The use of fossil fuels is the primary contributor to global warming.

There are viable, clean, healthy, and affordable home heating alternatives!
Learn how to burn environmentally friendly bio-diesel fuels, not just in your car, but in your furnace. Find out how a ground-source heat pump works and why it can achieve 400% heating efficiency. Discover what it takes to make burning wood truly sustainable. Natural Home Heating explains all these details and more, making it unique in the marketplace.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Here is the comprehensive guide to heating your home without heating up the planet. For warm feet and a clear conscience, this is the book you need."--Bill McKibben, author of Enough! Staying Human in an Engineered World

About the Author

Greg Pahl is a journalist and author of several books who has been involved in environmental issues for more than 20 years. In the 1980s he lived "off the grid" in a wind-powered home. He has written about wind power, solar energy, electric cars, sustainable forestry management, and home building materials. He and his wife live in Weybridge, Vermont. They heat their home with a biodiesel blend. To learn a little more about Greg Pahl, please check out his website www.gregpahl.com

Product Details

• Paperback: 281 pages
• Publisher: Chelsea Green (September 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931498229
• ISBN-13: 978-1931498227
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #358,016 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #94 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > How-to & Home Improvements > Heating, Ventilation & Air Conditioning

More About the Author

Greg Pahl is a 1967 graduate of the University of Vermont and a former Military Intelligence officer in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. A full-time freelance journalist for many years, he has written feature articles for numerous publications, including Vermont Magazine, the Vermont Times, Mother Earth News, The Champlain Business Journal, and many others.

In addition, Greg is the author of Biodiesel: Growing a New Energy Economy (2005, Chelsea Green), Natural Home Heating: The Complete Guild to Renewable Energy Options (2003, Chelsea Green), The Complete Idiot's Guide to Saving the Environment (2001, Macmillan/Alpha Books), and The Unofficial Guide to Beating Debt (2000, IDG Books).

Greg has been involved in environmental issues for more than 25 years. In the 1970s he lived "off the grid" in a home in Vermont with a wind turbine atop an 80-foot tower that provided for his electrical needs. He is a founding member of the Vermont Biofuels Association as well as the Addison County Relocalization Network (ACORN). He has written about biodiesel, wind power, wood heat, solar energy, heat pumps, electric cars, and a wide range of other topics related to living in a post-carbon world.


Visit Greg's website, www.gregpahl.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Busy hippie chick's dream, January 30, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Natural Home Heating: The Complete Guide to Renewable Energy Options (Paperback)

Greg Pahl's book organizes everything you need to know about heating with alternative fuels in a very "non-techy, quick to find salient facts" manner.I used his book to help me make choices in buying and installing a new wood stove to heat my dome house in Maine.With all of the alternatives out there, this book helped me intelligently sort through a myriad of choices and get a stove just right for my needs.