Book Review

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Solar Power for Your Home

By Dan Ramsey
Indianapolis, Indiana: Alpha Books, 2003.
309 pages; $19.95 paperback.

Reviewed by Carol Wendel

The world of solar technology can be a forbidding place for well-meaning consumers who want to use solar power, but are unfamiliar with this technology and uneasy about the long-term decisions that must be made. True to form for the results-oriented Idiot's Guide series, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Solar Power for Your Home sheds light on a complex subject. It can motivate readers to either build or retrofit a home with solar power for electricity or for water or space heating.

Written in a comfortable style replete with useful tips, this book covers everything homeowners need for asking solar system professionals intelligent questions specific to personal desires, sites, and budgets. Author Dan Ramsey explains how one can minimize home energy demands to begin with, what systems are available, how to purchase and install solar power systems (or hire someone to do so), and even how to buy and sell solar homes. Particularly useful is a step-by-step approach for calculating one's present use of energy for determining system needs—and identifying the energy hogs in a typical home. Readers will also be able to readily apply information about available rebates and financing.

Detours include generic information on the house-building process and moving. These pages could have better been filled with additional information on back-up heating and cooling, such as wood or radiant floor heating or geothermal systems. Diagrams are plentiful, but others could have been added, such as one that depicts the seasonal effects of shade trees on south/southwest walls. The list of resources is handy (although it does not include NESEA or other American Solar Energy Society chapters under the regional list).

Overlooking a few side trips and gaps, this handy reference takes the mystery out of using solar power, providing a guiding light for would-be solar power users and a source solar professionals can recommend to prospective clients.

Carol Wendel, M.S., is an environmental analyst and technical editor in western Massachusetts, with over 25 years of experience consulting for federal agencies, trade groups, publishers, and nonprofits.