Best Solar Power Home related magazines?
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used here: www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=mission-viejo-t…
and here: my.nowpublic.com/environment/solar-powered-trash-compacto…
and here: rarestnews.com/solar_power
and here: 4solarpower.net/tag/trash-compactor/
and here: www.paystolivegreen.com/2009/06/bigbelly-solar-powered-tr…
and here: www.greenlivingonline.com/slideshow/recycling-around-worl…
and here: cleantechnica.com/2009/07/27/new-solar-powered-trash-cans…
and here: www.supereco.com/news/2009/01/22/solar-power-solar-panels…
and here: cleantechnica.com/2009/12/24/mission-viejo-tests-new-bigb…
and here: my-solarpower.com/home-solar-the-advantages-of-home-solar…
Question by Annette: Best Solar Power Home related magazines?
We’re planning to incorporate Solar design features into our next home – actually, we’re looking at wind & solar. Which magazines are worth subscribing to? Which are not?
I should specificy that we’re more interested in passive solar than in solar panels.
Add your own answer in the comments!
2 Responses to Best Solar Power Home related magazines?
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Actually, check out some of the links on http://www.builditsolar.com
If you are going to do much of the work yourself, you will be sadly disappointed by what is available in print:
Homepower magazine http://www.homepower.com for example, it most often reads like a sales brochure, because “hands on” to a number of people usually means buying most of the system ready made in a kit. Hands on for me is breaking out the soldering iron and doing point to point wiring on components to construct the regulators (often called charge controlelrs.) Too much chaff for a hands on person to find useful. Some of the ads are useful.
Nuts and Volts http://www.nutsvolts.com/ is a bit better, but their topical coverage is far ranging so you do not always get as much as you would like. Spendy, might be better to sheck it out at the bookstores and buy it off the newstand when a decent article appears.
Mother Earth news http://www.motherearthnews.com is pretty good, but the best bang for the buck there is to buy their archives on CD rom, which is 3 disks, broke down by decade. There is a fair amount of substance, sometimes you encounter an article that sought to convert one item over to another, only it would have been much less work and cost for them to have started out from ground level and construct (with used parts) the same thing, which they sought to construct in the first place, a solar charged electric tractor is one specific item I have come to mind as one the author of the article could have done better. You might find the book they published “The Mother Earth News Handbook of Homemade Power,” which is not real good for specifics in some areas, but is good for some ideas if you are good at working from thumbnail sketches, you can fill in the blanks where there are gaps in detail. The book was written more as a “primer” than a complete compillation.
For your wind systems, there is a lot to be found at http://www.lindsaybks.com Hugh Piggott has written a few good books on the home construction of windmills. The LeJay Manual is a good reprint that has a lot of good info for home constructing- down to the wooden propeller profiles. As well as the book “Generator Secrets.”
One of the good sources for materials and tools supplies and systems is Northern Tool http://www.northerntool.com
One thing on propeller materials- never us ABS and never use PVC. As tempting as those can be they break. When they break, the blades will go for a great distance in modest winds. They can kill too.
J.
May 30, 2011 at 4:14 am
Glad to hear you are looking into solar systems, i think its a great move and more and more people are doing it as the technology is improving and becoming more efficient. There is some basic information about solar energy at http://www.sunpoweradvice.com
Paul Dub
May 30, 2011 at 4:55 am