So/ar Energy Vol. 21, pp. 161-162 0038-092x/781(~01-0161/$02.00/0 © Pergamon Press Ltd., 1978. Printed in Great Britain

B O O K R E V I E W S

Solar energy--fundamentals in building designt

To the rapidly growing collection of books treating the application of solar heat to buildings, Bruce Anderson adds a generously illustrated work describing many operational solar systems and their design. The book treats, in five parts, both passive and active systems and components for building heating and water heating. A resource section summarizes matters of a technical nature. In addition, the appendices contain a collection of weather data, properties of building materials, and characteristics of heat storage substances.

Although the planned readership is not mentioned, it appears to be the architectural community. The liberal use of graphics to support and elucidate the text and the bulk of the emphasis would seem to be directed toward this audience. Building engineers, however, would expect more technical depth and a less judgmental exposition. Strengths of the treatment lie in the areas of energy conservation, passive system description, fiat-plate collector per- formance, and climate-responsive architecture. Many projects, both historic and modern, are described. This is a particularly effective method for providing an architectural designer with a "feel" for solar-heated buildings. The selection of example build- ings shows an Eastern bias, however; much of the excellent solar architecture of the Southwest, for example, is ignored. In addition the work of early investigators seems overemphasized; many results of modern building experiments have been disregarded.

There are several critical omissions in this book which may limit its potentially broad appeal. General speaking, the ultimate purpose for broad use of solar heat in the U.S. must be for economic reasons-less expensive solar heat will be used to displace pro- gressively more expensive and scarce fossil fuel heat. Yet this critical topic of economics is treated explicitly in only two pages of the book and even there solar collector costs of $2/ft 2 are

used--a factor of 5-10 too low. The remainder of the two pages is only a qualitative discussion.

The treatment of solar cooling---both passive and active-- consumes only three pages. Although it is generally recognized that there is no mature solar cooling technology today, architects and engineers in the South would expect a much more thorough treatment of this subject, a topic very important in the professional practices. The Resource Section of the book contains an additional four pages by Charles Michal describing cooling and heat pump systems. However, these pages are superficial and contain state- ments contrary to well known laws of physics.

Part Five contains a heuristic procedure for predicting the annual energy delivery of a solar heating system. It is this energy amount which is the benefit accruing to the owner of a solar system; that is, it is the return on the owner's solar investment and as such must be accurately determined. Unfortunately, the method proposed ignores systems effects--storage, pumps, heat exchangers. As a result, the method is not based on physically realistic assumptions. Physically rigorous methods for solar system energy prediction have been available in the published literature since 1975. Their absence in the present work is unfortunate.

Several other basic topics are not included. For example, nowhere is historical solar data tabulated for use by the designer. High performance concentrating collectors are scarcely mentioned. The meteorological parameter "percent of possible sunshine" is not used properly.

In summary, this new book provides a constructive addition to the extant literature in its description and illustration of many types of solar heating systems. It will be useful as an introduction to solar systems for the professional architect. It does not contain requisite information for the major topics of solar system design, per- formance prediction and economic feasibility analysis.

tBruce Anderson, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1977. JAN F. K ~ m ~

Solid state chemistry of energy conversion and storaget

This volume contains 18 papers presented at a symposium of the same title at the 171st National ACS meeting in New York on 5-8 April 1976. In keeping with the aims of the Advances in Chemistry Series, it includes "reports of research as well as reviews since symposia may embrace both types of presentation." The book spans topics from photosynthesis to photovoitaics and presents an interesting overview of real and potential contributions of solid state chemistry to solutions of the energy problem.

Of particular interest to workers in solar energy are the two chapters on photoelectrochemistry by John O'M. Bockris and by Mark S. Wrighton and their co-workers; an excellent review of photovoltaic solar cells by Sigurd Wagner; a brief report of recent progress in wavelength-selective surfaces by John C. C. Fan; and a

~Proceedings of a symposium sponsored by the Division of Inorganic Chemistry of the American Chemical Society, April 1976. Series No. 163, American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, 1977. x, 371 pp., illus., $38.50. Edited by John B. Goodenongh and M. Stanley Whittingham.

very brief overview of solar energy conversion through photosyn- thesis by Roderick K. Clayton. In addition, there are several chapters on new electrode materials, solid electrolytes, and solid metal hydrides. As might be expected in a large collection of symposium papers, there are several contributions which are at best indirectly related to the title of the monograph.

The organization of the chapters leaves a great deal to be desired. For example, Clayton's qualitative review of photosynthesis in- cludes sections on wind, ocean thermal gradients, direct solar heating, and photoelectric devices; only 5 of the 15 pages deal with photosynthesis, directly or indirectly. This chapter is sandwiched between Wrighton's research report on stable CdSe photoelec- trodes in aqueous electrolytes and Wagner's review of photovoltaic devices. Similar examples are to be found throughout the volume.

The editing is also very uneven. There are several instances of figure legends which are either vague or inconsistent With the text, and undefined symbols in equations and typographical errors occur much too frequently. Some chapters appear to be error-free. while other chapters have several errors on a single page; likewise, some chapters have as few as 9 or l0 references, current through

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