The third cool green design book in out Top 5 this week is Off The Grid Homes: Case Studies For Sustainable Living by Lori Ryker (Gibbs Smith).

‘Off the Grid’ confronts the ecological and cultural problems associated with the way we get and use energy, and explains how it is possible to live in a beautifully designed home using much less - no matter where your home is located.

As the promo literature explains, our homes are connected by a nearly invisible grid of infrastructure that binds us together. It is a system of electrical poles, wire, substations, hydroelectric dams, telecommunication towers, and water extraction and sewage systems. It is also one of the greatest environmental challenges known to modern civilization. But through profiling ten homes in diverse regions like New York City, urban Germany, suburban Southern California, rural Canada, and the remote “bush” of Australia, the book shows how we can adopt the off-the-grid lifestyle, regardless of where we live or how much money we have.