small scale cogen handbook review

Started by mobile_bob, February 28, 2010, 04:46:06 AM

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mobile_bob

i ordered this from amazon thinking it might be useful

small-scale congeneration handbook
bernard kolanowski

i had hoped to find a book on the topic that might be a bit more current than that which is typically found to be from the '70's
or earlier.

what i got was a real disappointment

the book is what i would call a boilerplate conglomeration of readily available information, making one
feel the author simply swept up off the floor enough stuff to assemble into a quick book trying to make a quick
buck on the rising tide of cogeneration.

the only saving grace to the book was chapter 13

here the author broke with the flow of the book from plates and graphs of all sorts of technically based info, most of all related
to larger installations, to his personal history as it related to a specific cogeneration manufacture back in the '90's

he relates a story of a man he was partnered with that apparently was embesseling from his firm, got into tax problems and
was faced with financial ruin, the man went after and tried to kill the company atty, then came after the author.
the author went on for many pages related this horrific event in his life, and after doing so went right back into stride with cogeneration
as if the events of that chapter never existed.

strangest book structure i have ever seen.

here i was trying my best to get through an incredibly poor book on the subject, then coming upon that chapter i was left both puzzled
and amused, then wondering whether the publisher even read much less edited this work before publishing it.

all in all a waste of time and the price i paid for it.

so if you are looking for a book on cogeneration, keep looking, and what ever you do don't spend you lunch money on a copy, and i would
not even suggest checking it out from a library as it is not worth the gas to have to drive to return it.

two thumbs down!

bob g