Customer Reviews

Active Solar Collectors and Their Applications

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Unfortunately this book has not had an update since the first edition. Nevertheless, as a cientist in the area of solar energy I still use it very often, both for teaching and for reference. To my knowledge, this book is the best general account on the subject of solar collector optics, specially regarding imaging concetrating systems. For non-imaging systems I would rather recommend the book "nonimaging optics" by Winston et al.. But the book is also very good regarding the heat transfer analysis of solar collectors and the economic analysis of solar energy systems. It is simply a must for engineers developing solar thermal systems, along with Duffie and Beckman's "Solar engineering of thermal processes".

This is a "must-have" book for Engineers and Scientists involved in the design and development of solar collectors and systems(except photovoltaics). An engineering or science background is required to fully appreciate this book. I use it as a text book in a fourth-year-course on solar energy for Mechanical Engineering students. Though it is already quite old, I have not found any other book on this subject that comes even close to Rabl's in developing the material from basic principles with such clarity and elegance.
I had ordered this book as a replacement for my first copy that is falling apart from over-use. This book is a reproduction. All missprints are also reproduced. I am happy to share the list of errors (one by Rabl from 1986 plus a few more that I detected) with anyone interested...but Amazon suggests not to leave my e-mail address here. sorry.