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\date{June 22}
\to {Mr. Jack Dillon\cr 
The Sequoias\cr}
{\noindent Dear Jack:}

Thank you for your letter of May 22nd regarding a solar energy study here
at The Sequoias.

I have recently been able to see the extent to which solar heating is now
being used in several eastern Mediterranean countries and to observe the
wide variety of different types of solar panels that are used.  Most of
these countries are well ahead of the U.S. in their usage of solar
heating, particularly for domestic hot water heating.  I was told that 25%
of the private homes in Israel are so equipped and I can well believe this
figure.  Most of the installations were extremely ugly and seemed to
depend upon gravity circulation. This requires that the storage tank be
located higher than the solar panel.  Most of these tanks were
cylindrical, mounted vertically and bearing advertizing legends to
identify the manufacturer.  In many Israeli cities, there would also be
rectangular cold water tanks mounted above the cylindrical hot water
tanks, apparently to meet local restrictions against direct plumbing
connections.

In other countries, there were many installations with no visible storage
tanks where circulating pumps must have been used.  There were some
installations in which a cylintrical tank was mounted horizontally along
the top edge of the solar panel.  There were even some in which polished
metal (presumably stainless steel) covers enclosed the storage tanks and
joined them to the frames of the solar panels and hiding the piping.
These were quite attractive.  In fact, the contrast between the worst and
the best was so marked that I am moved to urge that we not accept any
proposal that would involve unsightly roof installations.

I also saw quite a number of installations on sloping roofs that did not
face south and where the panels were raised from the roof to improve their
directionality.  These were not nearly as unsightly as I had assumed that
they would be.  I now believe that we might well consider this arrangement
here at The Sequoias.

Since we already have a central water circulating system, we can do
without local storage.  We might even avoid the need for additional
circulating pumps, although there are a number of very compact and
relatively cheap circulating pumps that are now available.

I believe that the proposal made in my memorandum of March 16, 1981 is
still valid.

\sign{Arthur L. Samuel} 
\fin			 % C'est tout.
\end