Alternative Energy For Dummies

Rik DeGunther attended the University of Illinois as an undergraduate and Stanford University as a graduate student, studying both applied physics and engineering economics (some of this education actually stuck). He holds several United States patents and has designed a wide range of technical equipment including solar energy platforms, military-grade radar jammers, weather-measurement equipment, high-powered radar vacuum tubes, computerized production hardware, golf practice devices, digital and analog electronic circuits, unmanned aerial vehicles, guitars and amplifi ers, microwave fi lters and mixers, automatic cabinet openers, strobe light communications systems, explosive devices (strictly on accident), cloud-height sensors, fog sensors, furniture, houses, barns, rocket ships, dart throwers, fl ame throwers, eavesdropping devices, escape routes, and you name it. He's one of those nerdy guys who likes to take things apart to see how they work and then put them back together and try to fi gure out what the leftover parts are for.
Rik is CEO of Effi cient Homes, an energy-effi ciency auditing fi rm in Northern California. He is actively engaged in designing and developing new solar equipment, including off-grid lighting systems and off-grid swimming pool heaters. He writes weekly op-ed columns for the Mountain Democrat, California's oldest and most venerable newspaper. He has also written a highly acclaimed golf book (on putting) and spends most of his free time attempting to improve his relatively impressive but objectively droll golf handicap, usually to no avail. Sometimes the urge strikes him to play a very loud guitar, of which he owns a collection with far more intrinsic quality than the playing they receive. His hearing has been faltering the last few years, so he rebuilt his amplifi er to go up to 11.