Solar Water Heating: A Comprehensive Guide to Solar Water and Space Heating Systems (Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series) (ISBN 0865715610) Book Reviews 1-12 Sorted By Most Recent, at VeryWellSaid.com

all the basics

After reading reviews for this book I made the purchase hoping to have the basics of solar water heating covered. The book does that very well. Like most of us I'd love to see a book covering a detailed step by step installation with tools, equipment, costs, etc. But people with a handy man ability or a bit more like myself (builder)can figure things out pretty easily. Over All an excellent resource!

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-10-11 02:22:17 EST)

06-12-08

(NA)

Excellent Book

This is a very well written book. Bob Ramlow has done a lot of work on the subject of solar heating and makes the subject fun to read. I highly recommend that if you are interested in solar heating you also read "Build Your Own Solar Heating System" by Kenneth Clive. Build Your Own Solar Heating System

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-07-30 00:13:45 EST)

05-21-08

(NA)

Solar Water Heating

Very good and useful book if you want to understand/evaluate offers/tenders of companies that will construct your solar water heating system. Contains all the rules of thumbs and all the subjects really you need to know (system components, scaling of the system, types of solar water heating systems, system maintenance, system installation, cost calculations, etc.). My only real disappointment is the pervasive use of non-metric units (btu/therms, feet, gallons) throughout the book. This makes it hard to read for non-American readers. There is a unit conversion table, but it would have been better to include the second unit system between brackets or just to use the international metric system. Also a decision diagram/tree for helping to decide what type of solar heating system you would best go for depending on your climate/freezing conditions or not, etc. would have been a useful addition. This information, though, is in the text, but you just have to read it all.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-06-12 00:16:19 EST)

05-16-08

(NA)

A great book!

This book is practical and written in a very easy to understand manner. The author has extensive experience in the area of solar heating of water and conveys that knowledge to the reader very effectively. This book goes beyond hot water for household use and into radiant heating with the use of a heat storage system using a large sand bed which is the GEM of the book! I am planning on building a cabin in the Colorado Mtns and wanted this retreat to be self-sustaining and not a warm cabin that was sucking power or energy while not in use. This book has inspired me to design into the cabin solar hot water for household and radiant use. Now if I could just find a decent book about radiant heating for less than $100...........

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-05-22 00:16:25 EST)

05-04-08

(NA)

Excellent Book, but wasteful repeated pages

Content wise this is an excellent book. The level is just right for individuals that need to make the right choices to provide renewable Domistic Hot Water and Space Heating for their homes without having to sift through many non insightful therory and math. It has good collection of rules of thumb for a quick design. I have one criticism for this book. In my copy pages 113-144 are printed twice. The book is really only 240 pages and not 288 as stated in Amazon by the publisher. Not that the 40 extra pages would have completed the book. The book is fairly well written and complete as it is. I am just for saving paper/trees.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-05-21 01:37:24 EST)

04-09-08

0\1

Solar Water Heating

Great reference on solar water heating. Lots of options and details. The item is as described. Shipping was reasonable and prompt.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-05-21 01:37:24 EST)

03-31-08

(NA)

Solar Water Heating

This book is a great primer on how these systems work or can work. I was looking more for something that would show me where i can get a complete packaged system, pre-enginered. But this book was very helpful in allowing me to make a decision about whether to pursue a solar water heated slab design for my new house to be built. It turns out that according to the author, I need full sun from 9:30am to 3:30 pm on my proposed solar panels.
My site only allows sun from about 10:30am spring(11:00am winter) to 3:30pm and hence is not a great candidate for this type heat. The great part about the book is he gives you what you need to make this determination and I agree. If I am going to commit to an insulated slab, solar foundation, then I must be relatively sure it will be successful. I am now going to look into a geothermal ground source heat pump. I is more expensive to install, but in many ways could be simpler to run and keep from having to use as much expensive/dirty fossil fuels as conventional systems. Sure do wish my sight was SUNNIER though!!! Good book, easy read.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-04-08 23:06:05 EST)

03-16-08

(NA)

Excellent for people of all levels of interest.

With this comprehensive "manual" and a simple how to book on plumbing almost anybody could build a system for their own specific climate and needs.
If you just want to understand solar water heating and are thinking of buying an "off the shelf" solution this book will guide you to a good choice.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-04-01 14:30:16 EST)

11-04-07

3\3

Excellent treatement of solar water heating

This book takes a tutorial approach, providing an overview behind the impetus of solar hot water systems, the various systems available and their applicability, and provides a good deal of "how to" information regarding installation. This is the kind of treatment of material that I most prefer when attempting to learn for the purpose of later application of that knowledge. It stands in contrast to books by Dan Chrias (see my reviews), who tends to provide a more overview approach to the information. Coupled with a good understanding of conventional hot water systems, this book may be enough to successfully size, install and operate a solar hot water system. It's only weakness, given its objectives and the volume of the material, is that it glosses over the techniques for system sizing, especially how to manage the relationship between demand and supply (sun availability).

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-03-16 17:37:14 EST)

05-19-07

3\4

solar hot water

This is a great collection of information on the subject of solar water heating. I love how the author doesn't pull any punches. There are definite reasons why we don't use more solar hot water in this country. Regan led by example in the 80's when he pulled the solar collectors off the white house roof. While the author spends a bit on the history of solar heating this is definitely a manual on how to design and install a system. The author obviously has had a lot of experience with these systems and he knows what works. read this book and get a high quality solar hot water system up and running in your home. Our planet depends on it.
In fact he dedicated the book for our earth.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2007-11-05 17:12:14 EST)

05-16-07

1\2

Great support

I read the book fully with one breath. Basically it contains almost everything what need to know about solar systems and their application. But I gave 4 stars. The reason is simple: I am not sharing the view as vacuum tubes or heatpipes are having a same efficiency as normal flat collectors having. In our climate only heatpipes are able to supply enough heat for heating and support for heating. All others are excellent!

(Review Data Last Updated: 2007-10-17 21:51:53 EST)

04-04-07

1\2

Homeowner's Guide to Solar Water Heating