Customer Reviews

Solar Water Heating--Revised & Expanded Edition: A Comprehensive Guide to Solar Water and Space Heating Systems (Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is a very good summary of solar water heating, whether you just want hot water or you want to use it to heat your home. There are many books that contain most of this information, but this one is more up to date than others I have seen. The biggest added value is that the authors have years of experience, so they warn you about approaches which seemed like a good idea 20 years ago, but have not worked out.

What is really missing for me is the information needed to design a sophisticated system. For example, they mention early in the book that some controllers can be accessed on a network. I expected to later find some description of these, or a source for them, or even just a brand name mentioned. None of that is in the book.

In summary, I would highly recommend this book to someone new to the idea of solar water heating. It would probably also be good for a professional in heating or plumbing who wants to add some new business. If you are like me, and have already read and thought about this topic, what this book adds is a little disappointing.

For the money, this seems to be the best book on the subject. I found it full of excellent considerations and information. But, while the authors give good guidance on systems in their State, it falls short when providing good rules of thumb for us located elsewhere. For this reason I am giving 4 stars instead of 5. I wish there were an appendix for other areas of the country/world that provided more specifics for areas other than Wisconsin. But, living in North Georgia, it is good to know that folks are successfully using these systems in Wisconsin. Should work even better here!

Amazon asked me to do a review on this book I bought. It's Solar Water Heating..Revised & Expanded Edition: A comprehensive Guide to Solar Water and Space Heating Systems (Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series). What a long title for a book. Anyway, I've got to say it's a good book if your looking for information in solar water heating and the ends-and-outs of it. It will take you through the process and give you different ideas on how to impliment the solar water heating...so I give this book a 5 star, and it's a good buy!

The book is generally well written and has helpful illustrations.

Unfortunately, the author insisted on going political (e.g., "big oil is evil, "Reagan sucks," etc.) in his History chapter. Too bad...I really just wanted information about solar water heating.