Get Sust! Issue 26

Not just another book on sustainable housing...

Sustainable Solar Housing (Volume 1) is a very well written and timely book, with sufficient validated results to avoid being dismissed as "just another book on sustainable housing,” writes Steve Lo. “I would be very confident about adding this to the reading lists of my MSc Renewable Energy and Energy management students (75 and growing).”

The book benefits from an impressive list of very knowledgeable contributors with a good European balance. Readers will be comforted by their reputations.

Chapter 4 on economics and Chapter 6 on marketing are long overdue and very welcome; while Chapter 5, on ‘multi-criteria decisions’, would be very appealing to our architectural students. I like the design advice summaries at the end of each chapter, and I’m sure my students would find this particularly helpful.

The second half of the book focuses on ‘solutions’ for cold, temperate, and mild climates, and illustrates some innovative and often complex integration issues with some quite challenging technological combinations. I would have to beg to differ with some assertions regarding the selection of flat-plate verses ETSW but that’s for another day!

Another quibble is that some of the figures, especially the graphs, are on the limit of legibility.

However, devising solutions based on climate is an excellent idea - especially in light of the consequences of global warming on more southerly latitudes and the possibility of cooler climates in Northern Europe if, (nay, when) the gulf stream shuts down.

Learn more:

	•	Sustainable Solar Housing Volume 1, edited by S Robert Hastings and Maria Wall is published by Earthscan, priced £75.00 (hb); ISBN 1844073254. Its companion - Volume 2 - focuses on exemplary buildings and technologies, and includes in-depth case studies of six European housing projects, plus a review of technologies including the full range of heat production techniques, photovoltaics, and building information systems. Buy the two-volume set for £125.00 (hb) ISBN 1844073270 from Earthscan Publications.
	•	Dr Steve Lo is Course Director PgD/MSc Renewable Energy and Energy Management at the Centre for Sustainable Technologies, University of Ulster at Jordanstown, N. Ireland. www.engj.ulst.ac.uk/CSTNEW/renewable_energy.htm.