Home Power DIY

I am a professional engineer with degrees in mechanical and nuclear engineering. I specialize in energy systems for building heating, cooling, and lighting. I have forty years of work experience. This book with twenty-three chapters and 362 pages covers pretty much the full range of alternative energy options that are commercially available or nearly so for consumers. The technical level seems to me about what one would expect for articles in Parade, the Sunday newspaper supplement. Diagrams are few and very simple. (There is nothing wrong with writing for this level of reader.)

Certainly a qualitative discussion of how alternative systems work and what advantages they bring is helpful, but even an interested high school physics student would be looking for more technical content. The book’s cover has as the first objective learning to “evaluate the various forms of alternative energy,” but evaluation (a comparison of alternatives for example) requires thermodynamic and other technical facts and energy and system cost data far beyond those presented in this book.

After reading this book you will be able to describe in general terms (but certainly not engineering terms) the various alternatives; but you will have little basis for comparisons and selections.

The book has many technical mistakes. For example, the book states, “According to Carnot’s law, these smaller power generating machines can never achieve the efficiencies of the massive power plants…” He is speaking here of the Carnot thermodynamic cycle; but that “law” says nothing at all about the size of the system. Carnot (French engineer, 1796 – 1832) found that the theoretical efficiency of an engine operating on the Carnot thermodynamic cycle depends only on the temperatures of the hot and cold reservoirs.

Describing a nuclear reactor the books says, “so there is a need to constantly keep feeding in new uranium material in order to keep the consistent, steady flow of energy that is desired from a nuclear reactor.” Nuclear reactors powering electrical generating stations or naval vessels control the power output by raising and lowering neutron-absorbing control rods. New nuclear material is added only during refueling, which take place every year or two while the reactor is shut down.

The book states that steam is produced in a nuclear power plant in “the boiler (this is similar to the boilers used for fossil fuels.) The steam in a nuclear plant is produced in a steam generator that is far different in design than a fossil fuel boiler.

The book states, “Some reactors don’t allow the water to boil; they keep it under high pressure and use that pressure to spin the turbine.” In every common reactor system, the water that cools the reactor in the end produces steam. For example high pressure water that goes through the reactor in a pressurized water reactor turns lower pressure water in a separate circuit into steam in the steam generator, which is just a big water to water heat exchanger. All turbines that drive generators in reactor plants are steam turbines.

All of us must start with simple descriptions of new things. But one can not stop there if one wants to make accurate decisions. It is not common sense or higher moral values that drive innovation, but rigorous and often difficult engineering together with a knowledge of the economics of energy markets and knowledge of systems installation costs and operating costs.

Rating: 3 / 5

Alternative Energy For Dummies is a thoughtful and intelligent look at the current state of affairs and future possibilities presented by each of the alternatives to our current reliance on fossil fuels. Far from a polemic expousing *the* solution, DeGunther has produced a book that clearly explores the pros and cons of each alternative — including nuclear power — from an environmental, social, political, and financial perspective. Not your standard how-to type book from the Dummies, but a winner nonetheless.
Rating: 5 / 5

Several months ago I read an interesting National Geographic article on ethanol. I learned how Brazil’s motor vehicles run on ethanol, and how expensive it is to produce ethanol from corn.

But where could I find a book covering the salient points on hydrogen fuel cells, coal, diesel engines, nuclear power, solar cells, maglev trains, wind power, geothermal heating, hybrid-electric vehicles, natural gas, and hydropower? And how does each energy source affect global warming and pollution?

Alternative Energy for Dummies discusses all these topics and more in a very readable fashion and at an affordable price. I read the book from cover to cover.

Rating: 5 / 5

I picked up Alternative Energy For Dummies to learn a bit more about hybrid and electric vehicles before I took myself to the car lots and invested. I’ve used Dummies before to help educate myself on other topics and always got what I was expecting–but this book really surprised me! I found the author did an excellent job of explaining everything from the pros and cons of flex fuel, bio-diesel, and other alternative fuel cars as well as the ins and outs of their environmental, political, and social impact so that I could make the best decision for my life and conscience. I highly recommend.
Rating: 5 / 5