Page 20 RAIN November 1981 ENERGY Home Retrofitting for Energy Savings, by Paul A. Knight, 1981, 364 pp., $14.95 from: McGraw-Hill Book Co. 12216thAve New York, NY 10020 Tired of high heating bills? Interested in caulking and insulating your house? Want to do the work yourself? The first step is to read a good book on energy conservation so you'll know what to do. Then, read this book to l~arn how to do it. Home Retrofitting for Energy Savings takes you on a step-by-step tour of installing insulation on every conceivable surface in every possible wall. The instructions are complete, easy to follow and well-illustrated. Safety precautions are included at relevant points. They even talk about rental equipment for blown-in insulation. The fact that urea formaldehyde is included as a possible material is my only major criticism, as it shrinks and outgasses, and should be avoided. -Gail Katz Photovoltaics: Sunlight to Electricity in One Step, by Paul D. Maycock and Edward N. Stirewalt, 1981, 232 pp., $9.95 from: Brick House Publishing 34 Essex St. Andover, MA 01810 "Wear~ entering a truly fascinating era in the history of electric power generation and distribution. Since 1882 when Edison ran wires down the street from the world's first commercial central generator station in New York City, the trend has all been one way_:_ towards bigger generators and longer lines. Photovoltaics offers the first real opportunity to reverse that trend." Co-authored by the former director of DOE's photovoltaics program, Photovoltaics is a very good overview of one of the fast moving dark horses in our energy future. Although not complete in every respect (particularly noticeable is its absence of a descrip- ' tion of photovoltaic/fuel cell interface technology in general, and of Texas Instrument's innovative sprayed silicon/electrolyte process in particular), it is generally comprehensive, tightly writtt:n, and up to date. Maycock and Stirewalt cover th~ depth and breadth of the technology, from basic principles and manufacturing processes to current and potential applications, economics, and a glimpse of the potentially enormous impact ACCESS From Home Retrofitting photovoltaics could have on how we view energy. "It is a dramatic moment when post-industrial civilization is offered a new tool such as this and must choose how to apply itwhether to pick it up and test its abilities or to cast it aside. The test is whether coUectively we have the acumen, the wit, and skill, and daring to put it to good use promptly." My only gripe about this book is its rather single-minded obsess~on with the rapid im- / plementation of electric vehicle technology (electric/fuel hybrids are scarcely mentioned). The authors go to great_kngths to extol the virtues of replacing most of the nation's transportation stock 'Vith electric cars and trucks by 1991. The concept may be technically feasible, and, with cheap photovoltaics, perhaps even desirable. However, . their treatment of the social, economic, and environmental issues raised by such a proposal tends' to lack the hardheaded realism that is characteristic of the rest of the book. -KB '\ National Solar Energy Education Directory, Third Edition, prepared by the Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI), May 1981, 280 pp., $5.50 from: Superintendent of Documents US Government Printing Office Washingtoq, DC 20402 The best way to find an educational program suited to your needs is to talk to knowledge- .able people in the field , then communicate directly with the school. Catalogues are helpful if you're still exploring and want to see the range of possibilities. This book is as good a source as exists in print on solar education programs. Most of the normal architecture, planning, engineering, and physics degree programs and courses with a solar empha,sis are here. In addition, I was happy to find several ownerbuilder schools listed, as well as vo-tech programs and evening courses. Arranged in a useful and readable format, the data provided on each course is all you'd want short of a syllabus and a critical evaluation. Furthermore, the index is excellent. The data, however, is dated and not comprehensive. Information in the SERi book is current only to June 198'0: I know of scores ' of solar courses in Portland, for example, but none are listed here because they're intermittent or new. I also know of courses and programs at other colleges that have been around for a while but didn't make it into this catalogue-Goddard College and the ; College of the Atlantic both have programs focusing on renewable energy. Partly this is due to the method of soliciting information: the colleges themselves, if they received a questionnaire from SERI, had to dedde
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