Intro to Renewable Home Energy Solutions
JOIN THE MASTERCLASS …
A LIVE Verge Permaculture Academy Masterclass for Building Your Resilience
Renewable Home Energy Solutions
With Dan Chiras
Money-Saving Keys to a Comfortable, Energy-Efficient Home!
Starts September 27th, 2023
Wednesdays
2:00 – 5:00 pm PT | 3:00 – 6:00 pm MT | 5:00 – 8:00 pm ET
Get the Info and Strategies You Need to Save and Produce Energy At Home!
With Dan Chiras’ expert guidance, you’ll discover what it takes to heat, cool, and power your home, while using the least amount of energy for the greatest return.
The author of 40 books on renewable energy and sustainable living, Dan Chiras, PhD, has lived on solar electricity since 1996. Over the past 40 years, he has built an international reputation as a self-sufficiency and sustainability educator/consultant, training both homeowners and renewable energy industry associations in topics including residential solar electricity, passive solar heating and cooling, green building, and more.
He has installed solar electric and wind systems in Colorado and Missouri and consulted on dozens of passive solar, energy-efficient homes throughout the United States and Canada.
He currently lives with his wife on a solar homestead in Colorado.
Meet Your Instructor
Dan Chiras
Stuck in an Energy Quandary?
When you’re looking to combat the rising costs of conventional energy and save thousands by producing your power close to home, you’ll need to consider:
Discover Your Energy-Saving Solutions And Do Your Budget, Your Health, and the Planet a Favour!
When you’re producing your own energy at home and relying less on the grid, the benefits just keep on multiplying. Cleaner indoor air, healthier forms of heating and cooling, fewer pollutants in the atmosphere from fossil fuels, not to mention lower (or non-existent) energy bills! And so much more…
And you can gain it all in this rare opportunity to learn from international renewable energy expert Dan Chiras, in the proven Verge Academy Masterclass format!
Just see what former students have said about their Masterclasses:
Apply Science and Strategy to Your Energy Use
Whether you’re retrofitting a vintage home, looking to buy a new-to-you property, or planning to build your own, this Masterclass will give you the guidance you need to cut your energy expenses without sacrificing comfort, and instead gain:
Sign Up and Dan will show you how it’s possible.
Renewable Home Energy Solutions
MASTERCLASS
ONLY $399 CAD
(~$290 USD)
Starting September 27th, 2023
Wednesdays
8-weeks of live online lectures
Protect Yourself from Rising Energy Costs and Dangerous Outages
With weather getting weirder, it only takes one power outage to realize how much your household depends on reliable energy!
Skip the noisy, smelly, petroleum-hungry generator and lock in your steady supply of quiet renewable energy with the many solutions Dan Chiras provides in this Masterclass.
Get the Info and Strategies You Need to Save and Produce Energy At Home!
With Dan Chiras’ expert guidance, you’ll discover what it takes to heat, cool, and power your home, while using the least amount of energy for the greatest return.
Learn how you can:
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Recognize the way heat moves in and out of your house
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Improve your energy efficiency
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Use sustainable strategies to get almost-free heat for life
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Set up passive strategies to get almost-free cooling for life
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Understand the science of renewable energy and solar electricity
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Store your renewable energy for future use
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Learn the basics of home-scale wind and micro hydro power; solar and hybrid water heater; hydrogen energy; fuel cells; home-scale biofuels; and more!
Along with Dan’s live lectures and Q&As, you will have the opportunity to make friends and build your own local support network through real-time collaboration in break-out groups of fellow students from your bioregion.
Plus, you’ll get a 30% discount on Dan’s book, The Homeowners Guide To Renewable Energy!
LOOKING FOR MORE DETAILS?
Scroll down for detailed course schedule & content and FAQ’s
Live webinars hosted on Wednesdays and start at 2:00 – 5:00 pm PT | 3:00 – 6:00 pm MT | 5:00 – 8:00 pm ET (convert to your time zone here).
| Week | Dates | High-Level Topics Covered |
|---|---|---|
| Week #1 | Wednesday | September 27 | Building Science + Home Energy Efficiency |
| Week #2 | Wednesday | October 4 | Sustainable Energy Strategies |
| Week #3 | Wednesday | October 11 | Passive Cooling Strategies |
| Week #4 | Wednesday | October 18 | Solar Electricity |
| Week #5 | Wednesday | October 25 | Battery Backup |
| Week #6 | Wednesday | November 1 | Intro to Small Wind, Microhydro, Solar Hot Water + Hybrid Water Heaters |
| Week #7 | Wednesday | November 8 | The Future of Energy: Hydrogen, Fuel Cells + Home Scale Biofuels |
| Week #8 | Wednesday | November 15 | Open session |
On average, webinars will run about two hours long, and may go shorter or longer depending on the number of student questions each week.
All webinars are recorded and posted to the student dashboard where you can watch or (re-watch) at your own pace.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
You can pay online with your credit card.
If you’d prefer to pay using another method select that option during checkout and you’ll receive instructions on how to do so. Note that we can accept cash, bank-certified cheques, email money transfer (Canadians only) or credit card over the phone.
Your spot is not saved in the course until payment is received.
We can also accept payment plans for some of our courses. The payment plan option will be displayed at checkout if that is the case.
*Please note that registrations paid by email money transfer are processed manually. Because we are not in the office everyday, be prepared to wait 24 business hours during weekdays before your registration is approved/activated. If you are registering with short notice before an event, we recommend that you pay online using a credit card so that your registration is processed and approved automatically by our system.
All On-Demand course materials (i.e. videos, recordings and associated resources) are available indefinitely (our lifetime or yours). *** Does not apply to all Permaculture Design Course packages or Verge Permaculture Academy subscriptions.
Rob Avis is a Diplomate in Education from the Permaculture Institute of North America (PINA) and PINA recognizes and endorses Verge Permaculture’s courses and curriculum.
Updated January 2023
For courses paid up-front in full:
If you need to cancel your PDC, Masterclass, or other Live course registration for any reason:
- Up to 10 days following the 1st class: we will refund your course fee but will deduct an administrative fee of $150 (plus applicable taxes), however, you will lose access to all course materials and recordings. Tuition for the PDC On-demand course is not refundable.
- More than 10 days following the 1st class: We cannot provide a refund.
For payment plans:
You can cancel your payment plan anytime (but you will lose access to all course materials and recordings). Payments made towards plans are not refundable.
We are not able to offer refund for on-demand courses and products.
Participating in our live online programs and on on our student portal is easy.
If you’ve played a video on your computer from Youtube or Vimeo before, then you’ve got all you need participate!
BUT TO BE MORE SPECIFIC, WE RECOMMEND:
- A desktop or laptop computer
- An up-to-date internet browser (Internet Explorer 8.0 or above, Firefox 2.0 or above, or Safari 3.0, or Chrome 4.0 or above)
- Speakers/headphones
- A broadband internet connection (for a reliable viewing experience at medium quality we recommend a downstream connection speed of at least 400-700 Kbps. You can test your connection speed here)
We use an online platform called Zoom for our live webinars. All you need to join (from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android) is to click on a url that we will provide to you on the Student Portal.
The full system requirements for the webinars, including operating system requirements, supported tablet /mobile devices, supported browsers, and bandwidth requirements can be found here. (Note that you only need to meet the requirements for “Webinar Attendees” – no camera is required).
Don’t have high speed internet? You can also call in via phone, but note that toll rates may apply.
To get the most out of the masterclass you should expect to commit anywhere from 2 to 3 hours a week.
The weekly live sessions will run, on average 2 hours long, but may go shorter or longer depending on student questions. There may also be some supplemental reading and/or videos provided each week to students.
If you miss a live webinar, you will be able to watch the video recording, which will be posted to our Student Portal and can be streamed online 24/7. If you are a member of the Verge Permaculture Academy, you will also be able to access audio recordings of the lectures offline on your mobile device.
The instructor may offer you optional practice exercises that are designed to hone the skills and knowledge being taught. These are not required to complete the course.
Renewable Home Energy Solutions
MASTERCLASS
ONLY $399 CAD
(~$290 USD)
Starting September 27th, 2023
Wednesdays
8-weeks of live online lectures