Solar Heating and Cooling

Today the installation of solar heating or cooling systems brings an increase in property valuation in most states, and a corresponding modest increase in real estate taxes. R. A. Tybout and G. O. G. Lof showed that the combination of solar heating and cooling, which results in higher use factors on the solar energy equipment, is, in most places, more economical than heating or cooling alone. The Solar Heating and Cooling Demonstration Act of 1974 should lead to many new solar buildings. In addition to research and development activities, there are now a few sales of solar heating systems which are installed as operating heat delivery systems rather than as experiments. Systems for producing service hot water, space heating and cooling are based on the concept of the flat-plate collector. Solar cooling may benefit from collector developments that permit energy delivery at higher temperatures and thus solar operation of additional kinds of cycles.