Power with Nature: Alternative Energy Solutions for Homeowners [Paperback]

Rex A. Ewing (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2006

Be your own power company and let Mother Nature provide the energy! By investing in affordable, new technologies, you can join the thousands of homeowners who get free electricity from the sun, wind and water. In this updated 2nd edition of Power With Nature, you'll learn how easy it is to use renewable energy to become self-sufficient and live well anywhere! - Off-Grid Solar PV, Wind & Micro-Hydro Systems
- Homeowner Profiles (Personal Power Companies)
- Utility Grid-Tie Options
- Sizing Your Renewable Energy System
- Charge Controllers, Inverters, Batteries
- Putting It All Together Safely
- Heating of House and Water
- Pumping Water
- Worksheets, Maps, Resources, Glossary, Index and much more!

Editorial Reviews

Review

Ewing writes in a folksy, informal manner, and readers will find his hands-on primer worthwhile. -- Library Journal, April 2003

Loaded with practical information to help almost anyone gain better understanding of using and living with renewable energy. Very readable! -- Dr. Mark McCray, RMS Electric

Much needed, up-to-date book on renewable energy. An easy read, based on real people’s experiences. -- Doug Pratt, Real Goods --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Rex Ewing has lived blissfully off-grid with solar and wind energy since 1999 when he left the dusty plains of Colorado and headed for the Rockies to build his wife, LaVonne, a long-promised log home. When he's not writing books or magazine articles about renewable energy -- or his first love, horses -- he and LaVonne are probably trekking through the back country, canoeing, or enjoying the 50-mile view from their deck. Before moving to the mountains to concentrate on his writing, Ewing raised grass hay and high-strung Thoroughbred race horses in the Platte River valley. Whenever his employees were clever enough to corral him behind a desk, he served as CEO of a well-respected equine nutrition firm, where he formulated and marketed a successful line of equine supplements worldwide. Ewing's books include Got Sun? Go Solar; Power With Nature; HYDROGEN -- Hot Stuff Cool Science; Logs, Wind and Sun; and Beyond the Hay Days. His renewable energy magazine columns can be found in Log Homes Illustrated and Countryside Magazine.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Pixyjack Press; 2nd Updated edition (January 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0965809897
• ISBN-13: 978-0965809894
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #90,090 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rex Ewing was born and raised in the heart of northern Colorado's ranching country and true to form he grew up in the company of mixed-blood horses, Charolais cattle, and the large herd of Corriedale sheep his father John imported from Australia. In addition to his time on the ranch, he spent four years at Colorado State University, two seasons mining placer gold in California and Alaska, and a couple of stints on his brother's cattle ranch in Costa Rica. He also lived for seven years in a crude mountain cabin, casting gold jewelry, hand hewing log cabins, and roofing houses whenever money was tight.

When his father suffered a heart attack in 1984, Rex returned to the ranch which, in the intervening years, had been transformed into a Thoroughbred breeding and training facility. For six years he managed the ranch and hay farming operations, and when John Ewing died in 1990 he took over the family's horse nutrition business. It was a serendipitous career move for Rex, for it was while in the role of businessman that he met the love of his life, LaVonne, a freelance graphic designer hoping to do design work for his company. She got the job, for life. Four years later they married and moved onto a small acreage where they raised hay, pastured a few horses and dreamed up a future together.

Rex penned his first published book in 1997, a small treatise on horse nutrition. Beyond the Hay Days: Refreshingly Simple Horse Nutrition quickly became a bestseller. His premiere novel, Eyes of the Lioness, soon followed. A year later, after considerable planning and preparation, Rex and LaVonne divested themselves of their flatland holdings, packed up their cat and two dogs, and moved into a rustic off-grid cabin Rex had built on his mountain property several years before. Small and charming but lacking most modern conveniences, the cabin became their home for the next two years while they transformed a truckload of dead trees into a simple yet stylish log home.

Rex and LaVonne chronicled their log-building and off-grid experiences in Logs, Wind and Sun, a down-to-earth book which became very popular within the log-home and renewable-energy communities. Rex followed up with Power with Nature, a book for off grid neophytes, and Got Sun? Go Solar, a primer of grid-tied solar- and wind-electric systems which he wrote with friend and fellow writer, Doug Pratt.

Hydrogen: Hot Stuff Cool Science was Rex's first full-length foray into experimental writing. Employing an irascible wizard and a fanciful setting known as the Wasserstoff Farm, Rex embraced the difficult science of hydrogen energy in an imaginative tour de force that found quick acceptance with science teachers and Wall Street advisors alike.

The updated 2nd edition of Logs, Wind and Sun was released as Crafting Log Homes Solar Style; 2nd editions of the other renewable energy titles have also been released, thanks to the popularity of green energy.

Rex and LaVonne continue to work and create from their secluded mountain home. Though always in the midst of a book project, Rex still finds time to write regularly for The New Pioneer magazine.