Product Description

This second part of The Easy Guide to Solar Electric is Adi Pierper's answer to many requests for a hands-on book. It teaches how to plan, design, and install a Photovoltaic System down to the nuts and bolts. A very detailed view on DC electrical theory with formulas and graphs will help the reader in the planing stage.

Pieper is funny, sometimes cynical, but his language is easy-to-read and understandable. Chapters on how to save energy as well as on the current the energy politics in this country help to highlight the importance of the use of renuable energy. However this book is layed out to be used in any country on this planet.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #568045 in Books
• Published on: 2003-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Review
This book is packed with information that is easy to understand and implement. It is very well written... -- Writer's Digest 13th Annual International Self-Publish Book Awards

About the Author
Adi Pieper is a native of Germany but has lieved and worked in this country since 1985. Since 1991 he has worked in the Solar Electrical field in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is an Electrical Contractor and the President of ADI Solar. He also teaches classes on Renewable Energy.

Customer Reviews

Look for another reference
I purchased to books from Amazon...this one and "Photovoltaics: Design & Installation". In the begininning of this book the author says that you should not try installing an PV system, leave it to the professionals. It kind of contradicts the title doesn't it? Maybe he should have said that on the cover. Being a pretty good DIY person I found that this book provides very little practical information on hiow to actually install a solar system. It lacks detail in in describing materials and "How To" guideance. A much better choice is "Photovoltacs: Design & Installation". Very detailed instructions with examples. There are work problems at the end of chapters to test your understanding. An excellent book

Seriously flawed
Pieper has a lot of practical knowledge but some things he writes are plain wrong. On page 17 he writes: "The frequency of the sine wave is measured as Hz per second" (should be cycles per second which is Hz). On page 18 he says: "the sine wave [is] 220 volts between two peaks" (should be 311 v; 220 is the RMS voltage). On page 23 he says: "amp hours [are] also refered to as amps per hour or amp/hours" (not true). In page 27 he writes: "At some point, the resistance gets so high that it creates heat inside the conductor" (there is always resistance and heat, the problem is the temperature rises too high). He also is convinced the minerals in petroleum jelly help conductivity on the battery terminals (pp. 123&159) and says "search current" when he means "surge current" (pp. 120&125). Whole pages are such confusing technical nonsense that it is impossible to to give a short account. He self published - he should have had a technically competent person help him with theory and a good how-to book editor help with the practical stuff. I'm sure he is a very competent electrician and there is some good practical information in the book, but it is nowhere near as advertised.

Thinly Disguised Demagoguery
By title, this book claims to be a "how to" guide. The first section, however, belies this by explaining that you should leave it to professionals. Having thus disposed of the technical aspects, the author fills the remainder of the product with self-righteous, ultra-greenie, anti-capitalist claptrap, unsupported by fact or even verifiable cites. Not even well written propaganda, and most certainly not useful to anyone wishing to learn anything useful about installing a PV system.