THE sun radiates considerable energy onto the earth. Putting that diffuse, rarely over 300 Btu/h·ft2 energy to work has led to
the creation of many types of devices to convert that energy into useful
forms, mainly heat and electricity. How that energy is valued
economically drives the ebb and flow of the global solar industry.
This chapter discusses several different types of solar equipment
and system designs for various HVAC applications, as well as methods
to determine the solar resource.