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| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review: ( 5 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
a practical handbook with expert advice Feb 06, 2010
By Don Gilmore
If you are installing a solar system, get this book as insurance that you don't overlook something important. It is written by someone who walks his talk. The annual costs of the author's heating/cooling system are less than $50 per year.
I am giving this practical handbook five stars because of pages 33 to 75, and the way this clear information fits exactly with the first sentence of the product description: "Written to provide homeowners with factual information about the installation and use of solar energy, this book in indispensable as it educates and informs how to achieve an affordable, reliable solar energy installation." If you already know everything in pages 33 to 75, you've probably already done your solar installation better than I did.
Had I read this book before doing my own solar panel installation, I would have avoided several minor mistakes. I knew what I was doing, and I had an expert electrician to help, and we did succeed with a good setup. However, this extremely practical book showed me several specific details that would have increased my efficiency, reduced my costs, improved my battery life and made maintenance easier. Any one of these details would have more than paid for the book. Managing the details wrong is probably why many people still think solar is too expensive.
The intro is OK, but aren't you already convinced to go solar? Pages 17 to 33 comprise a good check list to make sure you are not wasting electricity, written by someone who pays attention to details. The long appendix has many articles, charts and tables selected by the author for their accuracy and practicality - stuff you need to know, written by a variety of experts. You could probably find most of it on the net if you know how to separate the true from the false, the practical from the theoretical. Whether you find these other pages also worthy of five stars depends on how much you already know.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
THE SOLAR MANUAL! COMPLETE FROM A TO Z. Mar 18, 2011
By Robin L Friedrich
FIVE STARS!!
GO GREEN & CLEAN! SAVE MONEY, SAVE ENERGY, SAVE THE ECO-SPHERE! SOLAR WORKS!
YOU CANNOT DO SOLAR IN THE DARK! THIS BOOK WILL LIGHT THE WAY! :)
THE SOLAR MANUAL! COMPLETE FROM A TO Z. For the do-it-yourselfer or share this book with your electrician, contractor or installer to make sure they provide you with an affordable, cost-effective, reliable and maintainable solar system!
Even if you already use a solar energy system, this book will help you REDUCE YOUR COSTS & INCREASE EFFICIENCY.
Author, Jonathan Cole writes from DECADES of experience in solar energy. A true expert in the field, Jonathan doesn't just write about it, he designs, BUILDS & lives with solar energy systems!
So, you're thinking of or have decided to go solar? If you thought you knew what you "needed" to know about a solar energy installation ~ STOP!! You MUST read this book FIRST!!!
This BOOK COVERS WHAT YOU WOULD MISS OUT ON W/ OTHER BOOKS or IF YOU DIDN'T BUY THIS ONE!!! A MUST-HAVE! Author, Jonathan Cole puts everything in COMPLETE AND UNDERSTANDABLE TERMS for the layperson, AS WELL AS DETAILED & REQUIRED INFO FOR THE PROFESSIONAL.
Jonathan Cole pays attention to detail, complete with illustrations, diagrams, charts, checklists & tables etc... each morsel of this book is VALUABLE INFO that you just can't be without!
A WEALTH OF INFORMATION!
"Written to provide homeowners with factual information about the installation and use of solar energy, this book is indispensable as it educates and informs how to achieve an affordable, reliable solar energy installation".
LOVE THIS BOOK! Worth every penny ten-fold!
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
The Energy Saver Feb 08, 2010
By David Jenks
This book is not puffy theory but a hands-on, practical, understandable manual on all aspects of solar power, including installation. Every page benefits from the author's long experience creating and living with his own systems. Although it's aim is to help anyone and everyone to convert to renewable energy, even if you cannot make the leap to solar, the book can show you how to monitor your current electrical usage and make your home as efficient as possible. Beyond that, it's well illustrated and diagrammed, with an appendix full of web references as well as cost analyses and maintenance tips for solar systems.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Best solar electric instruction/reference available Jan 17, 2010
By Betsy
"Betsy"
This volume by Jonathan Cole is outstanding. It provides the lay reader with clear explanations and recommendations that the author has developed over years of designing and installing solar electric systems; it will allow you to take charge of your energy future in the most thoughtful, efficient and cost-effective way. The book takes you through the entire process of examining your current energy use, making strategic investments to pare down that use with efficiency measures that improve--rather than compromise--your comfort levels, and THEN shows you how to size and select a solar system. Everyone should read this book!
A Practical How-To Solar Manual for the Homeowner Sep 09, 2011
By Steven Parente
"parentestudios.com"
Finally... a book (really a solar how-to manual) written by someone who has actually lived off-power for over 25 years and is technically skilled. If you are seriously interested in installing a solar system for total or partial energy independence, this an essential book to read, regardless if you are doing it yourself, or having a subcontractor do the work. I have a few friends that have installed solar themselves or by a contractor, only to experience problems that could have been easily avoided if they had read this book.
Light on the Earth is easy to understand with diagrams and charts. But unlike many books written about the subject of solar installation with mountains of data, this author identifies his own personal choices for his own solar home set-up. Most importantly, he explains why he made his choices and offers advice for other climates. Whether it be sun exposure, choice of PV panel arrays, appliances in the home, battery selection... basically everything you will need to know is described in this book! And most importantly, this book describes in detail, how to properly charge and maintain the battery bank and how to maintain the solar arrays for the maximum life of your solar system with the lowest amount of maintenance or costly repair or replacement.
This is a complete manual for going solar, written by someone committed to complete energy independence using solar energy.
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