Projects to Get You Off the Grid: Rain Barrels, Chicken Coops, and Solar Panels

by Instructables.com, Noah Weinstein (Editor)

Overview

Instructables is back with this compact book focused on a series of projects designed to get you thinking creatively about thinking green. Twenty Instructables illustrate just how simple it can be to make your own backyard chicken coop, or turn a wine barrel into a rainwater collector.

Illustrated with dozens of full-color photographs per project accompanying easy-to-follow instructions, this Instructables collection utilizes the best that the online community has to offer, turning a far-reaching group of people into a mammoth database churning out ideas to make life better, easier, and in this case, greener, as this volume exemplifies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781620871645
Publisher:	Skyhorse
Publication date:	03/01/2013
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Instructables.com is a bona fide Internet sensation, a web-based community of motivated do-it-yourselfers who contribute invaluable how-to guides to the site on a wide range of topics, from gardening and home repair to recipes to gadgets that defy categorization. The site hosts more than 100,000 projects. More than 15 million people visit the site each month, leaving comments and suggestions on the ever-growing list of do-it-yourself projects.

Noah Weinstein is an editor at Instructables.com, co-founder of SF Media Labs and spends time making things both big and small at his shop in Oakland, CA. He has worked as a white water rafting guide, custom speaker builder, sheep shepherd, and tractor driver. He earned a BA from Brown University where he concentrated in environmental studies and visual art.

Table of Contents

Introduction vii

Editor's Note viii

Backyard Chicken Coop 1

Clipping Chicken Wings 7

Small Chicken Tractor for the City Dweller 11

Chicken Barrow 23

Collect Rain Water with a Wine Barrel 29

Roughneck Rain Barrel 31

Green Solar-Powered Water Barrel 36

Rainwater Collection and Distribution System 40

DIY 1000 Watt Wind Turbine 45

How I Built an Electricity-Producing Wind Turbine 48

Chispito Wind Generator 61

How to Build a Thermoelectric Lamp 67

Build a 60 Watt Solar Panel 73

Solar Power System 82

How to Make PV Solar Panels 88

Solar Lawn Mower! 96

Solar-Powered Fountain/Herb Garden 109

Solar PV Tracker 112

Greenhouse from Old Windows 116

An Algae Bioreactor from Recycled Water Bottles 123

Conversion Tables 126