Green Building Bible ((both volumes) fourth edition) These two books are the perfect starting place to help you get to grips with one of the most vitally important aspects of our society - our homes and living environment.
1 year Green Building magazine subscription Green Building magazine is the UK's only eco-building magazine. It always features a wide range of eco-building projects from all around the UK.
Ecohouse 3 Sue Roaf never fails to impress with her inexaustible energy, forthright opinion and attention to detail. Ecohouse has become a classic in the green building genre.
Welcome to new Forum Visitors
Join the forum now and benefit from discussions with thousands of other green building fans and discounts on Green Building Press publications: Apply now.
Here is collected data for most of my offgrid system components for June 2008. Three things should be noted.
1. Our consumption goes up and down with the amount of available energy. Some element of draconian rule is enforced during shortages and profligate uses goes on in times of high generation such as cook-ins washing and bathing.
2. The monitoring of the wind turbines is approximate due to the lack of DC total generation meters and the absence of advance monitoring components in wind turbine installations at present. Not sure why this is. it may be that wind turbine manufacturers are shy of us knowing the true output of their kit.
3. A small amount of generation from a micro hydro has to be worked in here soon but the contribution is tiny and the unit is only used in times of extreme energy shortage.
Thank you Keith for your hard work and valuable information.
Am I right in thinking that this year has been crap (in the UK) for solar energy?
I've used your previous figures in my effort to see whether solar anything is worthwhile in our poorly located position (trees. not facing south). At the moment it is a no.
This is really tricky. I'm now going to introduce the output from the water turbine to the charts to make things more accurate. The water turbine has not been included before because it's output was so fickle and intermittent. It now forms a small but core aspect of my 'winter' system.
It is 'a fact' that without it I would have had to go on the grid in late October for occasional support.
Therefore at this point, I conclude that the combined efforts of: a 2.5kW wind turbine a 400w wind turbine a 750w solar tracker a 480w solat static array a 440w solar static array and a 1680ah 24volt battery bank (granted it is almost 30 years old)
are NOT enough combined to keep and average family off the electricity grid from October to probably March but let's see.
When you look at the next charts, remember that my consumption is wholly predicted by the available energy. Our October consumption is lower than June. It is the 'making hay when the sun shines' phenomenon and is part and parcel of living by monitors and restrictions. In June we cook every day on an electric cooker. In October we cook most days with a woodburning cooker (not by choice I might add).
Books 
