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

Despite Federal tax credits (up to 30% of the total cost, including installation) for solar water heating there's a lack of information on the subject. For a handyman with good plumbing skills, or a homeowner wanting to learn about solar water heating, this is the best book available. After a history of solar water heating in the US, the book describes various systems that use the sun to heat and store water. Climate, freeze conditions, water quality and amount of sunlight available are some of the factors considered in choosing a system, and the book describes them all. Individual components are detailed in a logical, straightforward way. It's obvious the authors have extensive practical knowledge. The writing style is informal and easy to read. Besides all the solar water heating information, this book also has a good section on radiant floor heating, detailing the use of PEX tubing to heat a concrete slab. The book uses a lot of drawings to demonstrate how things work. More actual photographs of systems and components would have been helpful. I also wish the authors would have included brand names and sources for equipment. The industry still suffers from the stigma of poorly designed systems of the 1970's and 80's. Some reassurances from the authors regarding which component manufacturers are good would have been nice. For the past five years, I've lived with a solar water heating system I bought as a package and installed myself. I've been happy with all the "free" hot water it's provided. If this book had been available when planning my system I would have had a much better idea of what I was doing. Having all the components matched and sized with specific instructions gave me a lot of confidence during installation. In my opinion, for the neophyte, a component package is a good way to go. For anyone planning a residential sized solar water heating system, this is the best book available. It's an excellent guide, whether you decide to choose the individual components yourself, buy a package, or hire a contractor to install a turnkey system. If you're a contractor or someone wanting to get into the solar water heating business, "Solar Hot Water Systems - Lessons Learned 1977 to Today" (Tom Lane) is very good, but the amount of technical detail implies you already have a good working knowledge of plumbing and roofing. [...] Good luck getting into hot water!

This book was great for both beginner's and advanced technician in explaining the details of solar water heating. Instrumental in designing an off the grid solar water heating system.

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!

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...........

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.

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!

I absolutely Love this book...if you are considering solar thermal at any scale, (and if your not, you should be) and are looking to get your toes wet, or are needing a handy reference to keep around, get this book, and you'll love it to..it's not all encompassing, but many references are made to tangential subject mater to explore...i think an excellent job was done of shoveling in as much, pertinent, surface to mid level info as posible, into a "fun read" sized package...

If you want just a basic overview with some honest tips. Yeah, it's good then. But this book is recommend in colleges, like mine, and it has no real sense of learning the physical grit of what needs to be done or important standards that need to be up hold. If you actually work on solar.

Highly recommended for those starting and looking for an understanding of the field of solar system technologly and applications. Great buy!

Needed more details but will do for now

Beat the bookstore price at the college. Was an easy purchase and shipped reasonably. For personal use? Everything seemed really easy to understand.