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DIY Solar Book, home

Table of contents

Contents

Nine parts, from reading your site through testing what you built. Every guide is written in full.

Part I: Start Here

Chapter 1. Reading Your Site

Learn where the sun travels over your property across the year and whether your roof, wall, or yard can actually harvest it.

Planned tools: Sun-path chart generator (latitude and longitude); magnetic declination helper; shade-window diagram; project-picker flowchart.

  1. 1Why Build Your Own Solar? Costs, Payback, and Satisfactionpublished
  2. 2Finding True South (and Why Your Compass Lies)published
  3. 3The One-Afternoon Solar Site Surveypublished
  4. 4Mapping Shade: Trees, Neighbors, and Winter Shadowspublished
  5. 5Roof, Wall, or Ground? Choosing a Mounting Spotpublished
  6. 6Picking Your First Project: A Decision Flowchartpublished
  7. 7Working Safely: Ladders, Roofs, Glass, and Heatpublished

Part II: Conservation First

Chapter 2. Find the Leaks

Measure how your house loses heat before spending a dollar on collectors.

Planned tools: Whole-house heat-loss calculator; degree-day lookup; air-leakage (ACH) estimator; house heat-flow diagram.

  1. 1Home Heat-Loss Basics: Where Your Energy Goespublished
  2. 2Build a Low-Cost Blower Door from a Box Fanpublished
  3. 3Smoke-Pencil and Thermal-Camera Leak Huntingpublished
  4. 4Reading Your Utility Bills Like an Energy Auditorpublished
  5. 5Heating Degree Days Explainedpublished

Chapter 3. Seal, Insulate, and Cover

Cheap, high-return upgrades: air sealing, insulation, window covers, and hot-water savings.

Planned tools: Insulation-upgrade payback calculator; window R-value and condensation calculator; drain-water heat-recovery savings estimator.

  1. 1Air Sealing Weekend: The Ten Cheapest Fixespublished
  2. 2Adding Attic and Wall Insulation: Payback by R-Valuepublished
  3. 3Clear Interior Storm Windows You Can Makepublished
  4. 4Insulated Window Shades and Quiltspublished
  5. 5Bubble-Wrap and Film Window Trickspublished
  6. 6Cutting Hot-Water Waste: Recirculation, Pilot Lights, and Drain Heat Recoverypublished
  7. 7Phantom Loads and Efficient Lightingpublished

Part III: Solar Space Heating

Chapter 5. Water-Based Space Heating and Storage

Larger liquid systems that store solar heat in tanks and deliver it through floors or radiators.

Planned tools: Tank sizing calculator; pipe and pump head calculator; system schematic library.

  1. 1Combined Hot-Water + Space-Heating System Overviewpublished
  2. 2Building an Unpressurized Storage Tankpublished
  3. 3Radiant Floor Loops from Solar Heatpublished
  4. 4Pumps, Heat Exchangers, and Controllers Explainedpublished
  5. 5Pipe Sizing for Solar Loopspublished
  6. 6Backup Heat Integrationpublished
  7. 7Freeze Protection for Part-Time Homespublished

Part IV: Solar Water Heating

Chapter 6. Simple and Batch Water Heaters

Passive, pump-free ways to preheat water, from camp showers to tank-in-a-box heaters.

Planned tools: Batch heater temperature estimator; pool heating area calculator; thermosiphon height diagram.

  1. 1Batch (Breadbox) Water Heater for Warm Climatespublished
  2. 2Thermosiphon Systems: Let Hot Water Risepublished
  3. 3Solar Camp and Garden Showerspublished
  4. 4Solar Stock-Tank and Livestock Water De-Icingpublished
  5. 5Solar Pool Heating on a Budgetpublished

Part V: Passive Solar Homes and Sunspaces

Chapter 9. Sunspaces, Greenhouses, and Solar Rooms

Attached glazed spaces that grow food and push warm air into the house.

Planned tools: Sunspace heat-gain estimator; glazing transmittance table; airflow diagram.

  1. 1Attached Sunspace Planning: Heating Room vs. Growing Roompublished
  2. 2Low-Mass Sunspaces for Daytime Heatpublished
  3. 3Solar Greenhouse with Heat Storagepublished
  4. 4Glazing Materials Compared: Twinwall, Glass, Filmpublished
  5. 5Moving Sunspace Heat into the Housepublished

Part VI: Staying Cool

Chapter 10. Passive and Low-Energy Cooling

Shade, ventilate, and use the night sky and ground to stay comfortable without much air conditioning.

Planned tools: Shade-angle calculator; ventilation opening sizer; ground-temperature-by-depth chart.

  1. 1Shade First: Trees, Awnings, and Exterior Screenspublished
  2. 2Night Flushing and Whole-House Fanspublished
  3. 3Reflective and Cool Roofspublished
  4. 4Earth Coupling and Ground Temperaturespublished
  5. 5Radiant Night-Sky Cooling Experimentspublished
  6. 6Living Comfortably Without Air Conditioningpublished

Part VII: Solar Electricity

Part VIII: Wind, Water, and Biofuels

Chapter 12. Small Wind and Micro-Hydro

When (and when not) to harvest wind or flowing water at home scale.

Planned tools: Wind power versus speed calculator; hydro head and flow power calculator; pump sizing tool.

  1. 1Is Your Site Windy Enough? Honest Wind Assessmentpublished
  2. 2Small Wind Turbines: Towers, Safety, and Expectationspublished
  3. 3Micro-Hydro Basics: Head, Flow, and Powerpublished
  4. 4Solar Water Pumping for Gardens and Livestockpublished
  5. 5Rainwater Catchment and Storagepublished

Chapter 13. Biofuels, Wood, and Solar Cooking

Cleaner combustion, biogas, and cooking or drying with sunlight.

Planned tools: Fuel cost comparison calculator (per million BTU); heat-pump COP comparison; solar oven diagram.

  1. 1Burning Wood Cleaner and More Efficientlypublished
  2. 2Small-Scale Biogas: Concepts and Cautionspublished
  3. 3Build a Box Solar Cookerpublished
  4. 4Solar Food and Lumber Dryingpublished
  5. 5Biomass Fuel Cost Comparisonpublished

Part IX: Tools, Calculators, and Testing

Chapter 14. Measure It: Testing Your Builds

Instruments and methods to check that your project works and to improve it.

Planned tools: Collector efficiency from test data; solar radiation on a tilted surface; data-logger wiring diagram.

  1. 1Logging Temperatures with Cheap Sensorspublished
  2. 2Measuring Airflow and Collector Efficiencypublished
  3. 3DIY Pyranometer for Solar Radiationpublished
  4. 4Using a Thermal Camera Wellpublished
  5. 5Running Fair Side-by-Side Comparisonspublished

Chapter 15. Design Tools and Data

The calculators, weather data, and modeling tools behind every guide.

Planned tools: Calculator hub for the tools named in earlier chapters; TMY weather lookup; unit converter (BTU, kWh, therm).

  1. 1Solar Radiation Data and How to Use Itpublished
  2. 2Modeling Projects in 3D (SketchUp/FreeCAD) for Shadingpublished
  3. 3Material and Supplier Guide (Glazing, Absorbers, Insulation)published
  4. 4Glossary of Solar and Building-Science Termspublished
  5. 5How Much Energy Do You Actually Use?published