Books

(of interest to EnergyConsumption users)

The Home Energy Diet 

The Home Energy Diet (review) is a book by a home energy inspector in New England. It is likely to become the first EnergyConsumption textbook. In addition to memorable tips, it focusses on energy awareness and literacy ... and teaches you to do the math necessary for informed decisions.  Browsing through this book seems more enjoyable than reading it straight-through, but it has lots of useful statistics and a big appendix of energy consumption numbers for various products.  It offers tips for people willing to do things their neighbors might not do (like forego use of a blow dryer -- your consumption has to be really low or your hair very long before blow dryer usage matters :).

Consumer Guide to Home Energy Savings

The Consumer Guide to Home Energy Savings is exactly what it says it is and more.  From reading (parts of) this book, I have learned everything I would need to understand, shop for, and have intelligent conversations about the latest energy-efficient products and techniques.  This book includes a chapter on energy literacy, but focusses on extremely practical information for anyone looking to upgrade their home. It also has great drawings and diagrams that illustrate problems like air leakage and concepts like energy flows.  If you have high energy consumption related to heating and cool and are willing to pay professionals to do the work, this book is full of ideas to bring down your bills.

Sustainable Energy, Without the Hot Air

is a fairly comprehensive and quite readable analysis of what is practically accomplishable, from many different areas of the energy flow.  It is written from a British perspective, but deals with the issue from a holistic viewpoint.  From the introduction, "This is a book about factors of 2 and factors of 10."  An April 1, 2007 comment about this book on The Oil Drum takes issue with some of the conclusions drawn (again in July 2008, and some vindication in comments starting 6 May 2009).  An Open Democracy "group read" of the project offers summaries of the various chapters.