Reviews for Domestic Solar Energy: A Guide for the Home Owner

The average rating for Domestic Solar Energy: A Guide for the Home Owner based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-07-05 00:00:00 Wei Yu Lu Someday, I might like to own a house. And if I own a house, I want to be able to say with some certainty what style it is. So with those Very Important Dreams in hand, I purchased my very own copy of A Field Guide to American Houses. The behemoth that arrived on my doorstep was intimidating: 800-odd pages, black-and-white photographs, and so very many houses. And I read. And I peered at the pictures. And I began to understand the development and evolution of housing in America. How the stately houses in the south, all sprawl and living porch, faded into the snug two-story shingle-style houses of the north. How to use window panes to date a house. How technology made housing easier, and faster, and less unique. My one wish--and perhaps this is completely out of line with the scope of the book--is that there could have been some examination and discussion about interior architecture and how that was evolving along with the exterior. There's some very brief touches on it: the use of a central receiving hall disappearing from early Colonial and Federal styles, only to reappear with the Millennium Mansion; how back elevations changed with the normalization of refrigerators and washing/drying machines; how 'living spaces' were defined by the activities therein (bedroom vs. formal living rooms vs. rec room). Overall: highly recommended for anyone who wants a broad and dirty rundown of American domestic architecture.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-07-20 00:00:00 Jared Thurow Why, in the middle Twentieth Century, did American neighborhoods and suburbs swell with tracts full of "ranch houses" that obviously never got near the Bar L? Can you identify the styles that replaced the Ranch? Is there really a difference between "Victorian" and "Queen Anne" home styles, be they standalone or town (row) houses? If people speak of the "Italianate influence" in a 19th Century house, what do they mean? Here's a great way to load up on these terms and how housing styles look, in quite an entertaining way: In any of its iterations, Virginia McAlester's A FIELD GUIDE TO AMERICAN HOUSES is a welcome staple. Find out about the various styles of U.S. architecture, from Colonial to Modernist and beyond, and elaborations both fancy and vernacular. Representative photographs make this an irresistible -- and foundational -- volume to have, be the reader a student of U.S. history, a devotee of architecture, someone who'd like to commission a home, or even a budding real-estate agent needing to know where all these "styles" came from. Buy the hardbound version if you can afford it; it will last. But make sure Virginia McAlester is the author or co-author. Drawing: Oklahoma bungalow aka "Oriental Peak": "American Rambler" a/k/a "Ranch" style home: