By Daniel D. Chiras
White River Junction, Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing Co., 2002. 320 pages; $29.95 paperback.
Reviewed by Bill Smith.
I read a lot of books and articles about buildings and building science. There aren’t many that attempt to cover as much material as this book does, let alone succeed at it. In 248 pages of text, plus an 11 page resource guide, Daniel Chiras covers as much information about residential buildings as I have found in a single volume. He also gets into a sufficient level of detail on most of the topics he takes up.
Despite the title, this is a book about houses as much as it is about solar. The author takes you through the process of designing and building an energy-efficient house. The fact that the house uses the free energy from the sun for heating and, yes, cooling is a bonus. The emphasis on integrated systems design brings this book’s usefulness to a higher level.
The information on solar design is delightfully concise. Using illustrations and tables along with the text, Chiras packs a lot of facts into a relatively small space. After a general discussion of the various solar strategies, he goes to a climate specific discussion so that the reader can understand which methods would work best for her or his home.
In addition to solar, there are thorough sections on energy efficiency, back up heating systems, indoor air quality, and energy modeling software. While these sections might not be quite as strong as the solar sections, the author has clearly done his research well.
If you are planning to build, or buy, a solar house, you should read this book. If you are a building or design professional who is already well versed in these topics, you’ll want this book on your shelf to refer to when you need to clarify a point for a client.
Bill Smith is the owner of Building Diagnostics in Concord, NH.
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