Alternative Energy Resources

Books: Library & Downloads

• Anderson, Bruce and Wells, Malcolm. “Passive Solar Energy — The Homeowner’s Guide to Natural Heating and Cooling“, 2005, A down-to-earth free online book, 160 pages.
• Austin Energy  “Green Building Sustainable Building Sourcebook“, 2008. 50+ pages, On-Line book by a power company, few pictures, lots of ideas, sort of like the LEED building program.
• Balcomb J. Douglas, “Passive Solar Buildings, 1992, 500+ pages, 36 chapters, Balcomb’s compendium of 70-80s solar research. NMSU Library, Las Cruces.
• Chiras, Dan, “The Solar House, Passive Heating and Cooling”, 2002, Holloman Base Library.
• Crosbie, Michael J., “The Passive Solar Design and Construction Handbook”, 1997, Wiley, 300+ pages (construction details) “Library Loan “Thomas Branigan Library, Las Cruces).
• Georgia Builder’s guide to efficient houses (PDF) – 150+ pages.
• Luce, Ben, “Passive Solar Design Guidelines for Northern New Mexico“, 2004, 30 p. of Balcomb’s expertise.
• Mazria, Edward, “The Passive Solar Energy Book, A complete guide to Passive Solar Homes” 1979, 400+ pages, Oldie but Goodie, Alamogordo Public Library.
• Wiles, John, “Photo Voltaic Power Systems and the National Electrical Code – Suggested Practices” 2008, 149 pages, rules for wiring PV.

BioDiesel & Ethanol Fuel

• BioDiesel Association – Many topics, basics to difficult.
• BioDiesel Community – DIY articles, how to make it.
• Biodiesel & Ethanol – Sustainable Fuels for your Car – 6 page technical article, explains terminology of fuel mixes of regular + biodiesel & ethanol.

Calculator programs for home heating/cooling, building energy loads

• HEED: Home Energy Efficient Design – Free house energy program. And free relatively local weather included. Windows 98 and up, not Vista.
• Energy Analysis Tool – Giant URL about whole building design, & long articles on types, sources, predicted results. (2007)

Checklists for Home Energy

• Household Energy Efficiency – Nice set of 9 e-pamphlets on home energy in adobe format (must register – log on to download, free.)
• Your Home’s Energy Use – U.S. DOE Energy Savers page, links to many pages.
• Self Home Energy Check – Pretty good checklist for house energy efficiency two page download for your home.

Cookers, Solar Food Dryers

• Solar Cookers (PDF) – Nice adobe booklet 58p. 2 cooker plans, recipes, FAQs, history, how to do it.
• The Solar Cooking Archive – Massive site all sorts of cookers.
• Solar Cooking & Food Preparation – More cookers and food dryers and many green topics, compiled URLs to click on.

Data, Maps, Sources of Numbers

• Energy Information Administration – Giant U.S. Gov site of Energy Information Admin.
• Sun Path Chart Program – Sun Track chart by solar hour and elevation, enter zip code, and print chart.
• Estimated Value of Magnetic Declination – True North = 360 – Magnetic Deviation if East, or 0 + M.D if West, via zip code or Latitude/Longitude.

Data, SW Weather, Averages, Historical

• http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/summary/Climsmnm.html – Tabulated by station in SW states, scroll down to State, select town, or use map.
• Average Wind Speed by State – Ave Wind by state/town, Use edit button on Word, then Find (on this page) option.
• Custom Degree Day Data – HDD and CDD calculated for last year, maybe 5, by city/state New Site, results as Excel Spreadsheet.

Directory, Solar Professionals in NM

• New Mexico Solar Energy Association – Large selection mostly northern NM, Giant listing of NM businesses.
• In Otero County – Alamogordo – Tularosa
• Don Starkey FreeEnergy, freenergynm@gmail.com 575-585-4931(Solar Hot Water, Radiant Floor Heat, pool heating, designs, orders, repairs, advise for DIY.)
• Gabe Mayr, performance@tularosa.net 575-585- 2456 (Outside roll window shutters, design, orders, installs, and other energy saving ideas.)
• Chris Niner, http://www.greenmountainsolar.com/, solarman@netmdc.com 575-430-0918  (Off-grid living and installs, orders, repairs Solar PV Electric, Wind Electric, Rain Collection.)
• John Kloepper, shelka04@yahoo.com 575 -443-6157 (Dealer in PV components and look at a working PV system.)
• Ed Baker, Building Specialties, 575- 437-5055, (Master Carpenter, Passive solar additions. Passive solar home design.)
• Otero County Habitat for Humanity, 575-437-6562, (Builds Energy Star and better small houses.)
• French Brothers Construction, http://www.frenchbrothers.com 575- 437-7134, (Energy Star private building contractor, Subcontracts for PV installations.)

Distiller, pure water via solar DIY

• Solar Water Distillation-Stills and Solar Water Purification Project – El Paso solar energy project, of water distillers for Mexico.

DIY Do-It-Yourself – all topics

• Build It Solar Site Map – Very large site with all sorts of ideas.
• Home Power Magazine – Home Power Magazine, some articles require subscription, not an entirely free URL.
• Mother Earth News – Magazine, lots of articles on self sufficiency.
• http://www.dulley.com/list.shtml – Private Engineer, articles to read for free and for sale at $3 each.
• Home Energy Projects – 86 pages of Home energy projects.

Education, solar, alternate energy

• New Mexico Solar Energy Association (NMSEA) – Sun Chaser School Programs (in Alamogordo too) look under Teachers and Fact Sheets for Solar, look under Homeowners or locally call Ron @ 575 682 6027.
• Alamogordo Community Education – NMSU-A Community Education Courses or Joan @ 575-439-3626.
• NMSU-A Online Classes – NMSU-A offers an E T 126 (hybrid) 3 credit hour Solar Energy online class, 16 weeks. Fall & Spring.
• Manuals and Guides – Listed are Schools with Sol booklets for HS teachers and students.
• Solar Retrofits for Weatherization and Remodels – Free on-line solar lessons, not too technical, not necessary to register, DSHW & PV.

Efficiency of Home Items

• Energy Savers: Your Home – Windows, Skylights, Doors, etc.
• Energy Star – Large site to include appliances and home certification.

Electricity, Conservation

• Energy Savers – Many ways to do home electricity conservation.
• Standby Power: FAQ’s – Standby power “vampires”, electronics and appliances use power even in “off” mode.
• Efficient Windows Collaborative – Try fact sheets, toolkits for builders, and FAQ buttons good windows save on lighting and heating.
• The Skylight Guys – Skylight information, low e skyslights and FAQ.
• Solatube – Solar tube information, the new-age skylight, good for retro applications.

Electricity, PV (Photo Voltaic) Basics & Electric Codes & Checklist

• PV Watts – PV calculator.
• Renewable Energy at NMSU – About wiring PV, left column – Photovoltaic, Codes, Pubs, etc, also see Wiles under Books above.
• Photovoltaic Systems Research & Development – Many PV code articles by our NMSU John Wiles.

Electricity, PV (Photo Voltaic) Equipment, Hardware

• Array Technologies Inc. – Albuquerque Sun Tracker for PV array, Retailer, sizing for your modules and pricing.

Electricity, Wind Power- Big Turbines

• Harness the Power of Wind – Nice interactive site to check out the big wind turbines.
• New Mexico Wind Energy Center – PNM New Mexico wind farms, pictures and other power plants.

Electricity, Wind Power- Small Turbines

• American Wind Energy Association – Click on small wind American Wind Energy Assn.
• Small Wind Turbines – Wind Store in Norman, OK lots of information.
• Wind Electricity Basics – Nice magazine article with pictures and diagrams on small wind + links.
• Small Wind Electric Systems (PDF) – 27 page NM guide to wind power.
• Wind and Hydropower Technologies Program – More of the basics about small wind energy.
• Choosing an Appropriate Wind Turbine Size – Nice 5page monograph about small wind sizing and power, with metric numbers. (Canadian)
• Helix Wind – Small vertical wind generators, german engineering.
• http://www.windpower.org/ -A web book on the science of windmill power, Danish, click on topic, then left column for goodies. Danish Wind Industry Association. Click on English for translation.

Financial: Tax and Credits

• DSIRE – Database for State Incentives for Renewable & Efficiency good listing of funding in every state.
• Federal Tax Credits for Energy Efficiency – Nice listing of 2009-2010 Federal (30%) energy tax credits available for existing homes/businesses.
• Federal Tax Credits for Consumer Energy Efficiency – Complicated listing of above, Federal tax credits for energy efficiency, many categories.
• PNM Small PV Program - PNM site for New Mexico net metering, & REC metering of PV to the grid, applications, rules, etc.
• New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department – New Mexico’s 10% and US Gov’s 30% solar tax credit for PV and Solar Thermal active systems. Q&A + instructions + forms Questions to Ryan Helton (505) 476-3318 or ryan.helton@state.nm.us.
• Residential Energy Efficient Property Credit (PDF) Fed energy/solar tax rebates form 5695 + instructions 2008 (new form 5695 in Jan.)

General, All topics solar, basics, explanations, etc.

• New Mexico Solar Energy Association – General listing of URLs arranged by topic. Some different topics than this list.
• Energy Information Administration – Energy FAQs.
• Arizona Solar Center – Basics, good pictures, Look under Technology, and Technology for Consumer. very well done site, and good teacher ideas too.
• National Renewable Energy Laboratory – National Renewable Energy Lab, lots of topics on energy savings, all levels.
• Natural Resources Canada - Canadian government renewable energy site. Many interesting things.
• New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department
• How Stuff Works – Nice site for good explanations of the hows of most everything. Careful- a few commercial ads right up front, just scroll down to get to the good stuff.

Glossaries

• Home Power Magazine - Medium sized glossary of solar and renewable energy terms.
• U.S. Department of Energy – More oriented to energy in general.
• Energy Kids – General terms about energy (for older kids and beginners, but very complete.)

Heat Pumps Geothermal – Ground Coupled

• Natural Resources Canada – Canadian program to size geothermal heat pump.
• Earth Energy Systems (PDF) Download a 40 page Canadian Earth Energy booklet about Ground Coupled Heat Pumps. Easy read.
• Survival Kit for the Prospective Geothermal Heat Pump Owner (PDF) 27 pages, 2001 Owners Information+ Q&A from US Dept of Energy with complete costs analysis.
• GeoExchange.org – Source for equipment and installers and misc other stuff.
• Geothermal Heat Pump Energy – How it works 3 pages.
• Geothermal Heat Pump Systems – Many articles via index about Heat Pumps and Geothermal, Slinky Pipe, etc. OR click on FAQs.
• Water Furnace – Geothermal Heat Pump Manufacturer, Dealer in Truth or Consequences, NM, efficiency calculator.

Home Certification Programs – Energy Star

• Features of Energy Star Qualified New Homes -  For energy star certification 6 areas for energy star certification of new homes.
• Energy Star for New Homes Design Guidance – Energy Star for new home design guidance, latest changes to E-Star..

Home Certification Programs – National Assn. of Home Builders (NAHB) Green Building Program

• NAHB – National Green Building Program – National URL, rating systems at upper left a big topic about bronze- silver- gold- emerald ratings.
• Build Green NM – New Mexico’s Green Builder’s Assn. Dates for paperwork, rebates, and other goodies.
• NAHB – National Green Building Program – $35 to purchase 2008, ANSI Green Building Standards used by NM Green Builders Assn. Some information at this URL.
• Build Green NM (PDF) Older Green Building Guidelines, ver. 2, 2007 about 50 pages free.

Home Certification Programs – LEED Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System™ sponsor is the US Green Building Counsel

• The Green Home Guide – Never heard of LEED? Start here.
• U.S. Green Building – What is LEED? Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.
• LEED rating system – find type of structure, for Homes, Schools, Commercial, etc.
• LEED for Homes – voluntary participation by builders & owners (Gold, Silver, Bronze, levels.)
• USGBC – New Mexico Chapter, P.O. Box 25771, Albuquerque, NM 87125-5771 (505)227-0474.
• LEED for Homes Rating System (PDF) 140+ pages, Jan 2008.
• How to Guide for LEED certification for New Mexico (PDF) April 2007, 100 pages.
• LEED Management Services - click on left side for Tutorials for LEED management, tips for first timer doing a large LEED project.

Home Inspections

• Energy Audits: What Homeowners Need to Know - 6 page article, Why have a home energy audit?
• Publications – Ohio site with many articles about home inspections and certified inspectors.
• Green Building Course - Free green home inspector’s course. And home of nat. assn. certified home inspectors.
• DIY home inspection checklist – Does not replace a professional inspection.
• Home of American Soc. For Home Inspectors – Very respected organization for inspectors.

Hot Water, Domestic Solar

• Solar Hot Water: A Primer - Basic overview.
• Solar Simplified Hot Water, 8 page article, good pictures & diagrams.
• Solar Hot Water Basics – Overview of solar hot water nice diagrams.
• Solar Hot Water Batch Collector - Make a Passive Batch collector.
• The Integral Passive Solar Water Heater Book – Downloadable book Batch Hot Water, DIY.
• Solar Hot Water, Heating and Cooling Systems – City of Austin, TX long article about Solar Hot Water Systems.
• Solar Rating and Certification Corporation – Certification of solar heating panels.
• AAA Solar Albuquerque Retail store – See “Retail Stores” below.

Home Energy Audits (DIY)

• Energy Star – (easy) Look under Home Energy Audits, then click Yardstick, may be errors in HDDs and CDDs used.
• Home Energy saver - (harder)
• Home Energy Checkup and Audit – (very complete)
• Home Heat Loss Calculator – Uses R values, areas of ceilings and walls, window area, etc.

Newsletters

• Environmental Building News – Green builders newsletters, about 20 pages each month.

Magazines (DIY)

• The Consumer Information Center – Relatively expensive, but many searchable articles available under DIY.
• Home Power Magazine – Very nice for homeowner alt energies, nice on-line basics review, some articles without membership.
• Mother Earth News – Classic DIY magazine.
• American Solar Energy Society - “Solar Energy Today”, articles under Features, and a few under Archives, more of a big picture magazine by American Solar Energy Society.

Off the Grid

• How Living Off The Grid Works – Many essays on the systems to live off grid + other links.
• Green Mountain Solar – No Grid Electricity, PV and Wind for Electricity, Batteries for storage, DC powered well, near High Rolls.
• The Van Geet Off-Grid Home: An Integrated Approach toEnergy Savings (PDF) High-End Passive Solar, Off-grid, heavy analysis of all aspects of house selfsufficency 1997, 50+ pages.
• Living Off Grid Big URL for off grid living, how to, and testimonials.

Organizations, Solar

• New Mexico Solar Energy Association – State wide organizations (Alamogordo branch meets every other month) (info on fact sheets, workshops, contractor listing, conventions, etc.)
• El Paso Solar Energy Association – Lots of articles.
• National – American Solar Energy Society – Big multifasited organzation, their mag is SolarToday.
• Solar Energy International – Solar Energy International, Carbondale, CO, Solar Education.

Passive Solar – New Construction

• Passive Solar Design – Primer on Passive Solar House Design.
• Passive Solar Design Guidelines for Northern New Mexico – More extensive design of Passive Solar Houses, written for Northern NM, many numbers.
• Checklist for a Passive Solar Home (PDF) 5 page checklist for passive solar home design.
• Passive Solar Architecture -Heating – Many ideas about designing options, with schematics.
• Builders Guide - $45 for 400+ page builder’s guides, Alamogordo is probably Hot-Dry/Mixed-Dry Climate, while Northern NM and Cloudcroft /Ruidoso are Cold Climates.
• Designing Your Place in the Sun (PDF) 9 passive solar house plans, 7 page article.
• Designing and Remodeling a Home – General discussion on many topics, both new and retro, all types of houses, passive, straw, log, etc.
• A Simple Design Methodology for Passive Solar Architecture – NM architect: guidelines for Passive House, 1980s ideas, interesting numbers, good discussion.

Passive Solar – Retro- Remodel

• Home Energy Magazine Online – Remodel Magazine Article ~10 pages and adding sunspace and links .

Passive Solar – Zero Energy

• Zero Energy – Builder of zero energy homes in Northern NM, ramed earth blocks, small specially built houses.
• Ecological Construction Laboratory – Illinois Builder of super efficient houses. Pictures of house construction, explore site for more info.
• Europe’s Passive House Standards (PDF) Summary of Europe’s passive house standards and links.

Radiant Heating

• Solar Thermal Radiant Flooring – Listing of various types of solar radiant heating.
• Radiant Floor Heating – Long Q&A article about NM solar radiant home heat.
• RADIANTEC SOLAR HEATING: an idea whose time has come – Vermont based store with articles, prices, blunders

Residential Building Codes for NM & national

• Residential Compliance Using REScheck™ – U.S. DOE code program
• Building Energy Codes Glossary – Glossary of all energy/code terms and acronyms.
• Residential Requirements of the 2006 IECC - NM energy code as of Jan 08 Check with Mr. Fred Gallegos, Architectural compliance officer NM CID, Las Cruces, fred.gallegos@state.nm.us.
  (Also look under Electricity, PV and in Books under Wiles for more on these codes)

Retail Stores, New and Used

• Solar Energy Products – Solar in Albuquerque, Between Old Town and I-40 nice fact sheets, excellent on-line catalog, many essays on the active solar systems.
• Small Wind Turbines: For Homes, Business, and Off-Grid - Wind Power retail, Norman , OK, many details about costs, siting and payback.
• Wholesale Albuquerque Solar Electricity Store

Software – Modeling Programs

• Canadian Energy Programs – Many Canadian energy programs, free of charge.
• PV calculator – PV calculator, very complex, but can be a challenge to make it work.
• Energy 10 Calculator for Passive Solar Home Design – Includes Active system incorporated, costly.

SunSpaces, Sun Porches, Florida Rooms

• Shelter Systems Sunspace construction – plastic dome tents.
• SunPorch Sunrooms Sunspace construction – glassed in sun rooms / porches.

Thermal Mass (also see Passive Solar ideas)

• DIY: Thermal Storage Tubes – Water as a thermal mass.
• Sun-lite Thermal Storage Tubes – Location of water containers.

Thermal Imaging

• APT Energy Solutions -  For thermal imaging – commercial equipment used , Canada and Europe.

Window Efficiency

• Efficient Windows Collaborative – Many hidden factsheets here. toolbox/ builder toolkit , your state codes & weather zones.
• Window Shopping (PDF) Nice 6 page article about selecting, economics, types, and window performance codes.
• Serious Windows – Very low U windows, in AZ and in NM soon.

Workshops – close and far

• MREA Workshops – Custer, Wisconsin, seem to be reasonable in price.
• NMSEA – At left column: workshops, and out of NM too.
• Solar Energy International – SEI many at Carbondale, CO.