Review of Converting to an Eco Friendly Home
Review Of Converting To An Eco Friendly Home
A review of Paul Hymers' book Converting to an Eco-Friendly Home: The Complete Handbook
home > shopping | general | energy efficiency | carbonThis is a review of Converting to an Eco-Friendly Home: The Complete Handbook by Paul Hymers, published by New Holland Publishers with ISBN 978-1-84537-406-8 and an RRP of GBP 7.99.
There are now quite a few books on building and converting homes to make them more eco-friendly. This 176 page book by Paul Hymers - a qualified Building Control Officer - explains how it is possible to make homes much healthier, to save money, help the environment, and to reduce energy consumption by making small and large changes to our homes.
Contents of the Book
The book is split into the following seven main chapters:LIGHT: improve the lighting in a home - with particular attention to increasing natural light. Skylights, rooflights, and light tubes are all covered in detail, as is converting artificial lights to low energy equivalents such as CFL's and LED's.
POWER: how do we use power (electricity), and how can we generate our own. After an introduction to typical domestic power requirements, PV solar panels and micro wind turbines are discussed in detail, followed by a brief introduction to biomass and a guide to saving electricity.
HEAT: heating your home and heating water. An introduction to domestic solar water heating systems, boilers, and geothermal heating (for example ground source heat pumps) and their use with under floor heating.
SHELTER: passive cooling and heating, building materials, flooring, and insulation. An introduction to cooling and warming a home naturally - i.e. using the concepts of a passive house. This is followed by a guide to building materials, insulation techniques and materials, and a focus on eco-friendly flooring.
AIR: an introduction to air pollution, sick building syndrome (SBS), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), radon, and electromagnetic fields. This is followed by a detailed guide to improving ventilation to improve the air quality in our homes.
WASTE: how to reduce, reuse, recycle, with a guide to recycled and recyleable materials.
WATER: how to reduce water consumption, and an introduction to greywater and rainwater harvesting.
REUK Book Review
Overall this is an excellent book. The black and white illustrations are clear and relevant to the accompanying text which is written in an easy and enjoyable style. Every page is packed full of information from the front to the back cover (so no paper is wasted!).The index and glossary are both thorough, and there is also a page of useful contacts which could have done with being extended somewhat as it is a bit limited.
Calling this book the complete handbook is a bit of an exaggeration, but the author has certainly covered all main topics to sufficient depth to whet the appetite of the reader to go out and obtain more information elsewhere.
We are certainly happy to recommend this readable and informative book to our site visitors.
Buy Converting to an Eco-Friendly Home
Converting to an Eco-Friendly Home is available in most major bookshops, and also online priced at £7.99 or less. Click here to purchase it now at a discount from Amazon.co.uk: Converting to an Eco-Friendly Home: The Complete Handbook.Other Reading
If you are interested in Converting to an Eco-Friendly Home then you will also be interested in reading our review of Eco-House Manual.Article Last Modified: 09:15, 14th Mar 2009
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