DAN CHIRAS is an author, lecturer, consultant, and educator. He has spent more than 30 years of his life studying renewable energy and energy efficiency and other aspects of sustainable design and has been applying what he has learned in these areas to his homes and businesses.
Dan is founder and director of The Evergreen Institute’s Center for Renewable Energy and Green Building, located in east-central Missouri (evergreeninstitute. org), where he teaches classes on home energy efficiency, solar electricity, wind energy, electric wiring, the National Electric Code, passive solar heating and cooling, green building, natural building, and natural plasters.
Dan has been a visiting professor at Colorado College for more than a decade. Here he teaches courses on renewable energy, sustainable development, green building, and ecological design.
Dan has published nearly 300 articles on environmental issues, sustainable development, green building, and renewable energy in a variety of magazines, journals, newspapers, and encyclopedias. His articles routinely appear in Mother Earth News, Home Power, Solar Today, and Natural Home.
Dan has published numerous books — 29 as of December 2010 — including Power from the Wind; Power from the Sun; Wind Power Basics; Solar Electricity Basics; Green Home Improvement; The Solar House: Passive Solar Heating and Cooling; The Natural House; The New Ecological Home; Green Transportation Basics; The Natural Plaster; Superbia! 31 Ways to Create Sustainable Neighborhoods; and EcoKids: Raising Children Who Care for the Earth. In 2006, he published his first novel, Here Stands Marshall.
Dan consults on residential passive solar heating and cooling design and green building throughout the United States, Canada, and Central America through his company, Sustainable Systems Design, Inc. Dan is well on his way to converting The Evergreen Institute’s educational center to a net zero-energy facility.