Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Solar Water Heating


Solar Water Heating, Bob Ramlow, 238 pages


Similarly to Radiant Floor Heating, this straddles the line between informational guide for interested homeowners and how-to handbook for contractors. However, Ramlow does a much better job explaining concepts with a minimum of technical jargon (though the end of the book does bog down a bit in the details). Just as it says on the cover, this book explains how to heat your domestic hot water or even your entire house with a solar collection system, including collector placement, system sizing, heat storage, and different collector types.

I enjoyed this book a lot – Ramlow writes clearly and concisely and includes very useful diagrams that walk a layperson through the intricacies of plumbing. There is some discussion given to pricing, though of course each system is different. Additionally, although Ramlow notes at the beginning there are only three kinds of collector types he recommends, the book covers other types (for reference when doing maintenance on existing systems) and does not note with sufficient clarity which types are not recommended. Generally though, this was a fascinating reference for an underutilized technology.

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