BUILDING Superinsulated Houses and Double-Envelope Houses, William A. Shurcliff, 1980, $10 prepaid, from: Wm. A. Shurcliff 19 Appleton St. . Cambridge, MA 02138 A presentation and critical appraisal of the state of the art in two recent trends in lowenergy housing-superinsulated and double-envelope designs. The superinsulated, ' snuggled-in house lowers its need for heating, even in 10,000 degree-day climates to the point where heat from people and today's inefficient appliances can p"rovide most oi all the heat needed. The performance, ·design, and low cost of these houses is well demonstrated. In contrast to these dosed-in, minimal window de!iigns, the double-envelope, house-within-a-ho1+se concept (E'kosea house) is in an earlier stage of development. So far it has produced somewhat more exotic places to live in-greenhouses, roof windows, etc.-at probably higher cost and yet unproven performance .Shurcliff provides his usual competent survey of existing houses, their features and performance to date, along with a useful analysis and evaluation of their general performance. A useful working document tq researchers in the field. -Tom Bender SOLAR , Breadbox Design for the Fred Young Farm L,abor Cent{!r in Indio, Oct. 1979, 59 pp., free from: Wayri.e Parker, Project Manager I Solar Business Office 921 Tenth Street , Sacramento, CA 95814 • This is a case study of a passive syster_n that was designed for a multi-family dwelling in Southern California. The desig:6 criteria (the water.demand pattem, the ability to mass produce the units, the local'availability of materials, the weight, etc.) will prob- ,ably not match those for a sin'gle family residence, but they do such a bang-up job of showin·g you how and w_hy they analyzed the load, varied the parameters on the units, and evaluated the performance that the book is ,worth reading. It also contains eight passive designs with cost estimates and energy per dollar estimates. -Gail Katz Build a Drain-Back Solar Water Heater, 1980, $4.25, 57 pp.~ by/from: Chris Fried Rt. 3, Box 229 G Catawissa, PA 17820 This is a good build-your-own book from a group in Pennsylvania which has constructed over 50 units in workshops. The system detailed is a·dra1n down (where.the water drains back into the storage tank when the collector is not being used). The book shows good construction details and step-by-step assembly procedures. There are useful lists of s.pecific products which are suitable for solar application. -,-Gail Katz Design Manual for Solar Water Heaters, Alan Goldberg, 1977, $5.00, 40 pp., from: Horizon'Industries 12606 Burton Street North Hollywood,-CA 91605 This book doe_sn't go into specific equipment oi:; manufacturers, but it's a good . book if you intend to design your own rather than follow a set of plans. It briefly describes the types of systems and proceeds to walk you through the process of estimating the load, sizing the collector, sizing the storage and figuring out the economics of the whole thing. -Gail Katz The Solar Cat Book, by Jim Augustyn, illustrations by Hildy Paige Bums, 1979, $3.95 from: . Ten Speed Press P.O. Box 7123 Berkeley, CA 94707 This book manages to convey basic solar technology, a dose of "soft path" economic values·and some astute lessons in participaMay 1980 RAIN Page 15 Person selectlng a solar cat. Person selectlng an expert. tory government in one happy little pack--•~ age. No small feat! -CC Many unhappy meowium dioxide solar electric cats in desert plugged Into the electric utility distribution system.
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