Shopping Cart

We want to direct you to the right website. Please tell us where you live.

(This is a one-time message unless you reset your location.)

Available in Print and Digital (eBook) formats.
Choose the format you need.

Paperback
$39.95 USD
PDF
$39.95 $25.95 USD
EPUB
$39.95 $25.95 USD
Publisher: New Society Publishers
Pub. Date: 2014-10-24
ISBN: 9780865717848
Format: Paperback - 400 pages
Size: 8.5" x 11" (w x h)
BISAC: TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / Power Resources / Alternative & Renewable

Real Goods Solar Living Sourcebook

Your Complete Guide to Living beyond the Grid with Renewable Energy Technologies and Sustainable Living-14th Edition-Revised and Updated

What book would you want if you were stranded on a desert island? Widely regarded as the 'bible' of off-grid living, The Solar Living Sourcebook might be your best choice. With over 600,000 copies in print worldwide, it is the most comprehensive resource available for anyone interested in lessening their environmental footprint and increasing their energy independence.

The Solar Living Sourcebook-14th Edition is the ultimate guide to renewable energy, sustainable living, natural and green building, off-grid living and alternative transportation, written by experts with decades of experience and a passion for sharing their knowledge. This fully revised and updated edition includes brand new sections on permaculture and urban homesteading, and completely rewritten chapters on solar technology, sustainable transportation and relocalization. It also boasts greatly expanded material on:

  • Natural Building
  • Permaculture and biodynamics
  • Electric and biofuel-powered vehicles
  • Passive solar
  • Solar water heating
  • Grid-tie photovoltaic systems
-- plus maps, wiring diagrams, formulae, charts, electrical code, solar sizing worksheets and much more.

Whether you're a layperson or a professional, novice or longtime aficionado, the Sourcebook puts the latest research and information at your fingertips-everything you need to know to make sustainable living a reality.

About the Author

John Schaeffer is the founder of Real Goods-the foremost global source for tools and information on renewable energy, energy efficiency and sustainable living. He sold the very first photovoltaic module to the North American public in 1978 and over the years, through Real Goods, he has provided over 150 MW of solar power and has helped solarize over 18,000 homes. John is also the founder of the Solar Living Institute, based at the 12-acre solar-powered Solar Living Center in Hopland, California. The SLI hosts over 200,000 visitors a year, provides hands-on education about all aspects of renewable energy and sustainable living, and produces the SolFest renewable energy fair. John and his wife Nantzy grow biodynamic olives, grapes and lavender at their SunHawk Farms off- grid retreat in Mendocino County.


"Smart people who pay close attention to what's happening in the world around them fall into two groups: those who turn to whiskey and those who buy the Solar Living Sourcebook. Both have their merits. But if you have to choose, buy this book. It can change your life for the better. And the world, too."
Denis Hayes, President, Bullitt Foundation

"First there was the Whole Earth Catalog, and then there was the Real Goods Solar Living Sourcebook, and now... there is still the Solar Living Sourcebook. Now in its 14th edition, the Sourcebook continues to be jam-packed with exciting ideas and innovative products to make the good life a practical reality. Always a classic, but now even better."
Stephen Morris, Publisher Green Living Journal and founder of The Public Press

"Sunlight is the source of all life, and if we don't harvest and manage it intelligently, life (for us humans) will become irrelevant. John Schaeffer's masterful and elegantly updated opus, the Solar Living Sourcebook, is the most comprehensive guide published for the practical management of sunlight. This book is our blueprint for both the present and future, if our species is to survive into the 22nd century."
Thom Hartmann, NY Times Bestselling author and talk show host

"This amazing book is just swimming in knowledge - and you can dive in again and again to get your daily fix of sustainable ideas. John is the solar sage and an inspiration to so many of us in the sustainability business."
Birchy, co-founder and CE, Sungevity

"The Solar Living Sourcebook continues to be the bible for practical uses of commercially-available solar, energy efficiency and other clean energy options. Now that more people than ever before are turning towards solar energy options, to me, this is the first resource to start with."
Scott Sklar, President The Stella Group, Ltd. and Adjunct Professor, The George Washington University

"John Schaeffer has been a pathfinder in spreading distributed solar energy and self-reliant life ways since the earliest days. In this astutely practical sourcebook, he provides an indispensable field manual at exactly the tipping point when these tools are finally becoming the norm. This masterful compendium pulls it all together and gives everyone what we need to get off the grid and democratize clean energy."
Kenny Ausubel, CEO and Founder, Bioneers

"John is a sustainability and solar industry pioneer, who sold the first residential solar system and published The Solar Living Sourcebook more than three decades ago. His visionary actions and ideas then have now become a big, mainstream business-solar is the fastest growing industry in the US and residential solar the fastest growing sector within it. That is good news for our environment, economy, and national security. Thirty years from now his recommendations for more sustainable living should improve our lives in the same ways."
Nat Kreamer, Chairman of the Solar Energy Industries Association, White House Champion of Change, and CEO of Clean Power Finance

"Sourcebook is perfectly named, though it could easily be called the masterwork on re-inhabitation, an owner's manual for regenerating our earth, skies and water. Succinctly and clearly, Sourcebook delineates the pathways, tools, and knowledge we need to achieve the title of denizens, human beings who live in accordance with the laws of physics, botany, and biology, people who truly want to master the art of living as contrasted to a life of taking. The best manual you could possibly want."
Paul Hawken, Project Drawdown, author Blessed Unrest

"John Schaeffer's Solar Living Sourcebook is the authoritative guide to the solar home in the 21st century. REAL GOODS has been lighting the way to sustainability for nearly four decades. Read this book, install solar, eliminate your electric bill and declare independence from the grid forever."
David W. Orr, author, Hope is an Imperative.


Dry Run

Preventing the Next Urban Water Crisis

by Jerry Yudelson


The Homeowner's Guide to Renewable Energy-Revised & Updated Edition

Achieving Energy Independence through Solar, Wind, Biomass and Hydropower

by Dan Chiras


Cold, Hungry and in the Dark

Exploding the Natural Gas Supply Myth

by Bill Powers and Art Berman


Power from the Wind - 2nd Edition

A Practical Guide to Small Scale Energy Production

by Dan Chiras


Home Sweet Zero Energy Home

What it takes to develop great homes that won't cost anything to heat, cool or light up, without going broke or crazy

by Barry Rehfeld