During the normal evaluation of new products it is commonplace to test them under laboratory conditions. When the design has been reasonably established, field tests are conducted so the product can be evaluated under actual use conditions. In the case of a solar heating system, field testing helps evaluate mechanical reliability of equipment, durability, system operating characteristics, and the amount of energy delivered compared to predicted values under everyday operating conditions. After developing an air-type solar heating system in 1976, a field test program was initiated to evaluate complete system performance. Because solar heating systems are capital intensive in relation to other systems used to heat space and domestic water, one of the highest priorities of this program was to verify that predicted energy delivered from the system met expectations in full scale heating applications.