Solar energy

This is a 37 page document that introduces the principles of passive solar design. With line illustrations.

This very well illustrated plan(photos) will guide you though making a solar water heater using parts form an old fridge. Easy for beginners - just hand tools required.

Focus sunlight on this  model engine and it runs at full speed. Plans to build a solar powered Stirling engine. With description and drawings.

'Power is ample to drive a midget water pump or spin a display turntable. For indoor exhibits, such as in Science Fairs, a heat lamp can replace the sun. As a mantelpiece model, the engine can be operated on paper matches, alcohol, or fuel tablets.'

Heat Your Home for Free is a collection of classic articles from MOTHER EARTH NEWS that shows how simple solar systems can heat your home, garage, shop, barn, commercial building — just about any structure with a south-facing wall. The heat comes from solar energy, and it’s free. Best of all, this book shows how you can design, build and install solar heating systems yourself! We’ve compiled our best articles on do-it-yourself solar heating, from the early days of the magazine right up to the present.

Heat Your Home for Free shows you several approaches to solar heating: different materials, designs, construction methods. By the time you’ve read half of it, you’ll be inspired to design your own system — and you’ll know how to do it! These articles are by and about real people who built real solar systems that make real heat. They did it, and you can too! This book has loads of diagrams, photos, sketches, materials lists — everything you need to know to design, build and install your own solar heating system. Here’s what’s included:
You’ll meet Gary Reysa, an engineer and solar expert, who turned the entire south wall of his workshop into a solar heater! It produces heat equivalent to 60 gallons of propane every month. He built it for $350, and earned that money back in saved fuel in less than two years. You can adapt his simple design to just about any building with southern exposure. If it works for him, in Bozeman, Montana, it will work for you!

You’ll read about the “Solar Heat Grabber,” a simple window heater made from hand-cut insulating panels. It’s a classic design, a reader favorite ever since MOTHER EARTH’s staff developed it during the energy crisis of the 1970s. If you’d rather install a readymade solar heater, skip ahead to our “Buyer’s Guide to Solar Heaters.” It’s a quick rundown on commercially available systems, and a great basic intro to how solar heating works. Put easy, low-cost solar heat into a metal-sided building with our simple, low-profile TAPs (Thermosiphon Air Panels). No fan, no wiring, lots of warm! Or get some common framing lumber and corrugated fiberglass sheets, spend two or three hours building, and turn a south wall into a room heating system. You’ll meet a family living high in the New Mexico mountains who outfitted their old adobe home with a bare-bones-simple, effective solar booster for $25. You’ll visit a church in Washingtonville, New York that installed solar collectors made of castoff aluminum cans — and cut its fuel costs by 55 percent.

You’ll learn how to use salvaged storm window frames to pump FREE HEAT into your home. You’ll meet a father/son team from Springfield, Missouri, who spent just $30 to heat their 1,200-square-foot workshop by following four rules for super-inexpensive solar heat (Rule 4: Scrounge!). There’s even instructions to build an automated control system for simple sungrabbers like these, using inexpensive, readily available parts.

Your buying 2 different guides showing you HOW TO BUILD A SOLAR OVEN for as low as $3, The first set in an Easy to Read 3 step Beginners level format (process made simple) & the other designed for the Average hobbies, So that EVERYONE, ANYONE, EVERYWHERE can enjoy the benefits of Cheaper, Healthier, Cleaner & more Efficient Fuel/Environment. Recipes included.

How It Works  

The methods are extremely simple, making the process possible for anyone, everyone, ANYWHERE.

There are 2 projects, 1 for The Beginner/Hobbyist (“How-to Build Your Own Solar Box Cooker”) & 1 for The Experienced/Professional (“How-to-Build a Satellite Dish Solar Stove”), facilitating different methods in constructing:
1. The Oven
2. The Reflectors
3. The Chamber
4. The Absorbers

Typical tools, hardware & supplies are used, making access to parts available for all.

Solar Box Cookers can easily be transported anywhere & are great for hunting, hiking, camping, boating or day to day home cooking. The Solar Satellite Dish Stove can be set up simply in your back yard, cooking large meals for the whole family.

The Process

- The suns beams are caught.
- Large panels reflect the energy into a chamber.
- The pots inside this chamber absorb the heat, cooking ANY type of food placed inside.
- The chambers keep the food warm for hours after cooking is finished, presenting a nice meal when the time comes.

This guidebook is a sum of contributions from educators, engineers, long-time solar cooks and promoters, most of who served as volunteers with Solar Cookers International (SCI). Special thanks to Mark Aalfs, Paul Barth, Elinor Benes, Roger Bernard, Rick Blodgett, Barbara Blum, Bev Blum, Georgianna Borgens, Jay Campbell, Don Coan, Sherry Cole, Ramón Coyle, Maria Gonzalez, Gerri de Graaf, Tom Juring, Barbara Kerr, Barbara Knudson, Beth Luna, Dave Maize, Paul Mellersh, Bob Metcalf, John Murphy, Faustine Odaba, Joe On, Margaret Owino, Ed Pejack, Kevin Porter, Mark Rothman, Louise Seeley, Clark and Eleanor Shimeall, Randy Smith and Kim Victorine. This edition received support from the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund and the Sacramento Area Earth Day Network. Past editions of this booklet were supported by the American Conservation Association, the Educational Foundation and the W. Alton Jones Foundation. Solar Cookers International is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, nongovernmental organization spreading solar cooking to benefit people and environments.

File Details: August 24, 2007 4Mb (58 pages)

This donlaod contains three files that will help you estimator your power requirements for your house, boat or caravan. There are two Wxcel spreadsheets and one pdf file. To get the most form this you need Excel howver you can use the information to make manual calculations.

Included are the power requirements for typicall applainces. The power estimator could be used to calculate your solar, wind, or another generator requirements. The documents are in the public domain.

It is the generation of electricity from the power of the sun, via photovoltaic (pv) cells. It is different from solar water heating, where water passes through panels to be heated directly, and no electricity is generated. Photovoltaic cells are made from silicon; when particles of sunlight (photons) fall on the cells, they dislodge the outer electrons of their atoms, and push them along to the next atom; a chain of moving electrons is produced, and if a wire is attached to the panels, these electrons can be pushed down it to supply a useable electric current. This current is measured in amps, and to give some idea of the scale involved, one amp of current involves the movement of 6 million million million electrons per second

You are buying 3 different guides showing you HOW TO BUILD WATER HEATERS, perfect for POOLS, HOT TUBS, HOMES, etc. set in an Easy to Read Beginners level format (process made simple).

SIMPLE, EASY, BASIC. NO MECHANICAL KNOWLEDGE NEEDED

Thee guide even includes links to purchase parts & supplies, FREE unlimited online consultation & helpful hints to get you harnessing the FREE ENERGY from the sun & a HOT WATER in your home in as little as 1 day.

THE PLANS CAN BE USED IN ANY REGION, ANY TEMPERATURES & ADAPTED TO BE ANY SIZE.

HOW IT WORKS?

- The methods are extremely simple, making the process possible for anyone, everyone, ANYWHERE.
- There are 3 projects, facilitating different methods in constructing your own Solar Water Heaters.
- Typical tools, hardware & supplies are used, making access to parts available. - Solar water heaters can easily be installed anywhere around your home & need no extra accessories to sustain HOT water.
- Heater is able to reach & provide heat at upwards of 150 degrees F. providing enough hot water for ANY size home.
The suns beams are caught & reflected onto a Grid or Tank that absorbs the heat & pumped into your home. The tank keeps the water Hot during the night until the next days sun heats it up again.

Easy, inexpensive, do-it-yourself solar energy projects Featuring step-by-step instructions and useful photos and illustrations, this hands-on guide is filled with solar energy solutions you can put to use right away. Solar Power for Your Home shows you how to set up a variety of simple, money-saving solar projects quickly and easily, such as a solar water heater, a solar pool pump, solar lighting, a solar oven--and even a solar-powered lawn mower! Learn all about the different types of solar technologies, including passive solar and photovoltaic, and determine which best suits your projects. You'll get details on assessing current energy use in your home, estimating the costs of solar installations, and calculating your overall savings. Reduce your carbon footprint--and your energy costs--with help from this practical resource

Thinking about installing a solar-electric system? Having the right tools will allow you to get the job done quickly, done right, or done at all. If you have some electrical wiring experience or you’re the type of person who undertakes household building projects, you likely have a pretty well-equipped shop or tool shed. In addition to standard hand tools like insulated screwdrivers, a socket set, and box and open-end wrenches, you’ll need some specialised tools to install a solar-electric system. Many of the tools that the pros use are described in this 5 page ebook (pdf document. Once you have them, and learn to use them properly, a safe and professional installation becomes a possibility. Quality tools, like quality anything, aren’t cheap, so plan to spend some money gearing up for your installation.

About the author

David MacKay is a Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge. He studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge and then obtained his PhD in Computation and Neural Systems at the California Institute of Technology. He returned to Cambridge as a Royal Society research fellow at Darwin College. He is internationally known for his research in machine learning, information theory, and communication systems, including the invention of Dasher, a software interface that enables efficient communication in any language with any muscle. He has taught Physics in Cambridge since 1995. Since 2005, he has devoted much of his time to public teaching about energy. He is a member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Climate Change. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on 14 May 2009.

About the "free book" license

This is a free book. I didn't write this book to make money. I wrote it because sustainable energy is important. If you would like to have the book for free for your own use, please help yourself to any of the electronic versions on this website. There's pdf and html versions (thanks to William Sigmund!); we are working on other formats.

This is a free book in a second sense: you are free to use all the material in this book, except for the cartoons and the photos with a named photographer, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share-Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales Licence. (The cartoons and photos are excepted because the authors have generally given me permission only to include their work, not to share it under a Creative Commons license.) You are especially welcome to use my materials for educational purposes. This website includes links to separate high-quality files for each of the figures in the book.

In response to generous readers...
If you enjoy the free electronic copy of the book and would like to make a financial donation, without buying the paper book for yourself, please may I suggest that you find a library or a school that would like a copy of the book, and buy a paper copy for them? Thank you!

This ZIP file contains ebooks including a very detailed ebook on passive solar water heating. Although written in 1981 in contains some very good information and is very well illustrated with diagrams and pictures in black and white. If you are interested in building a solar hot water sustem this is a great read and should help your a great deal.