This Old House Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning: A Guide to the Invisible Comforts of Your Home

A step-by-step guide to heating and cooling systems features expert advice and handy tips on technology, energy conservation techniques, maintenance, and repair

Trethewey, familiar to watchers of TV's "This Old House" show, is that master plumber who solves home heating and cooling problems, turning basic but complex matters into entertaining visual essays. Now, Best ( Cut Your Bills in Half: Thousands of Tips to Save Thousands of Dollars ) helps to translate such projects into a book filled with cautionary tales, charts and drawings which grant instant access to the house's inner workings. It's a helpful guide, spanning mechanisms from electric fans to boiler systems. The authors explain different levels of comfort for various geographic locales, habits and changing standards of energy conservation, writing with appropriate cost consciousness in mind. They use examples of actual houses to illustrate problems and convey suggestions. Since the average do-it-yourselfer can't do the work that's meant for licensed plumbers, the book limits our tasks mainly to maintenance, while educating us in matters beyond our competence. Reading may confirm suspicions that we are victims of careless workmanship, incompetence and planned obsolescence. And, ironically, the book could encourage the homeowner to become the contractor's nightmare--the know-it-all who hangs over the workers' shoulders dispensing unwanted advice and watching for mistakes. But it is worthwhile. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

These subjects aren't sexy, but homeowners who don't take an interest in this tome's topics will not only become uncomfortable but find the household budget running in the red. For despite the fact that their basic equipment is usually relegated to a damp corner of a musty basement, heating and cooling systems are key elements in the home. Trethewey, who has been on the PBS series This Old House almost since its start more than a decade ago, cooperates with home-advice expert Best to give the reader the nuts and bolts of heating and cooling. Although much of their counsel is geared to new projects rather than rehabbing, anyone undertaking serious work on a home should know and understand what they have to say. Some may doze off while reading the less-than-scintillating prose, but those willing to occasionally prod themselves awake will not only save money but also find their homes better places in which to live, at least in terms of creature comfort. Jon Kartman

Trethewey, the resident expert on heating and cooling systems for the popular PBS home improvement series This Old House , follows series host Steve Thomas into print. Thomas's volume, This Old House Kitchens ( LJ 12/91), had a more upbeat tone than the current volume. In Chapter 1, Trethewey writes that the work of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) is not "very sexy." He laments the fact that much of the construction trade is devoted to surface appearances rather than the principles of true quality work. Trethewey details improvements and renovations to HVAC systems for those who are remodeling or building from scratch. While his book doesn't exactly offer exciting reading, his ideas are inspiring in a fashion. Recommended for homebuilding collections, particularly those with copies of This Old House Kitchens. (Index not seen.)-- Alex Hartmann, Bloomsburg Univ. Lib., Pa.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.