That matching money came from the Dayton-Hudson/Mervyn Foundation and the Tucker Foundation in Portland. pescribing the project is a feat in itself. Simply stated, we hope to cull from the resources at RAIN (the people here, people we know with specific skills, our library, periodicals, resource files, constant flow of information, etc.) the kinds of data needed to make communities self-reliant. Then we plan to make that information as available as we possibly can, through a local newsletter, "Rainpapers " on various topics, skills banks, community task forces on key issues (one, the Economic Development Task Force, is already meeting and has over 30 groups involved), training workshops, etc. Needless to say, we'll have our hands full. On top of that we've received a large sub-contract with Oregon Appropriate Technology (OAT)· from the Oregon Department of Energy to administer this state's Appropriate Technology Small Grants Program. In the meantime .it occurs to me we've How to Solarize Your House: A Practical Guide to Design and Construction, by Thomas Scott Dean and Jay W. Hedden, 1980, 175 pp., $20.00 from: Charles Scribner's Sons 597 5th Ave. New York, NY10017 If you're seriously thinking of buildi-ng your own liquid-based active solar heating system, this book should be on your reading list. It includes extensive details on collector construction and system components, with an emphasis·on the points where quality control is important for an efficient system. The design section includes an excellent discus- • never introduced the whole magazine staff to ·you.Well, fyiark and I, you may remember, arrived from the East (everything's east of • Oregon) a year ago last October. I came from Minnesota where I'd been insulating attics, building solar greenhouses, and working with neighborhood groups on energy and food policies. Mark had been teaching social ecology at Wesleyan University and hanging out with various A. T. and community groups in New England. One day we were muttering to ourselves over boxes of books and magazines that only an archivist could make sense of RAIN's quantities of resources. Enter John Ferrell, formerly with , the National Archives! John worked with our steady stream of interns-Kiko Denzer, Karen Struening, Kiko again, Laura Stuchinsky-to make order out of the chaos and ' in his spare time (!) started writing and edit-· ing. · The whole concept of an intern program is disconcerting to me. Three months is just about enough time to really integrate someACCESS: ENERGY sion of piping design and pump sizing. However, it is also weak on several important points, particularly system sizing and controls. This book is best when read in conjunction with a book that has a strong emphasis on system design. -Gail Katz Architects and Engineers Guide to Energy Consero,ation in Existing Buildings, by the Federal Programs Office of Conservation and Solar Energy, 1980, 471 pp., $14.50 from: National Technical Information Service 5285 Port Royal Road Springfield, VA 22161 FIG. 1-5. Earth-protected house by Malcolm B. Wells. February/March 1981 RAIN Page 3 one into the magazine, and more importantly, into our lives, and then it's "back to ' school." We just need to keep one now and then, so we did. Laura ,finished her program at Beacon College in Boston and became a Rainiac like the rest of us. She's half outreach worker for the Resource Center, one third circulation, and one third writer. We know that makes more than one whole, but that's the way it goes. Kevin Bell is our current intern, on his second quarter here. we"'re trying to figure out how to keep him, too. The graphics and layout job ha~ been most bumpy. Jill went back east after more than a· year here, and left us il'l; the hands of Zonnie Bauer who was wonderful. So wonderful that she lasted one month before being whisked off to Marin County. Linnea Gilson came on in a miraculous last minute shuffle and has been pulling it together in the layout closet ever since. All of the pieces of the puzzle seem to have come tog~ther, at last!-Carlotta This book was written primarily for energy professionals considering conservation retrofits for institutional and commercial buildings, but some of the techniques are applicable to homes as well. It begins with methods for analyzing both how much energy a building uses and how different energy management techniques can affect that figure. The book also examines over 50 different energy conservation measures, ranging from changes in maintenance procedures to complete renovation of the heating system and building, with a clear sample analysis and nomograph for each option. This is a good reference text for an area of energy conservation that deserves a lot of attention. -Gail Katz From How to Solarize Your House
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