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Solar Houses

• Introduction
• Bibliographies
• Solar Decathlon
• Dover Sun House 
• Solar I
• Solar II
• Solar III
• Solar IV
• Solar V

In 1949, Solar III returned to the ideas used in Solar I: heat collectors were located on the roof, this time tilted at a 57 degree angle to receive the maximum amount of winter sunlight. A 1200 gallon storage tank was mounted in the attic and solar heated water circulated through coils in the house's ceiling to provide heat.

 

Aesthetically more pleasing, Solar III was the first solar house to be used as a home, and was inhabited by a student family with one child. It caught on fire in December 1955 and the solar collector unit was destroyed. The house was demolished shortly thereafter.

"Course in solar heating to be given at M.I.T.," Heating & Ventilating 47 (June 1950): 115116.  

 

"Expect full report soon on MIT's sun-heated house," Engineering News Record 144 (June 1, 1950): 60.  

 

"Experts discuss sun-heated houses," Architectural Record 108 (October 1950): 184.  "For wintry weather," Technology Review (April 1949): 339-340.  

 

"M.I.T. builds solar-heated home," Architectural Record 105 (April 1949): 135-138.

 

"New solar-heated house," Science News Letter 55 (February 19, 1949): 115. [Q.S415]

 

"Solar house erected in Cambridge to use sun's heat," Heating & Ventilating 46 (April 1949): 118, 120. Also reprinted as: "For wintry weather," Technology Review (April 1949): 339-340 (see above).  

 

Campbell, D.C. "Winter comfort with free heat," Minnesota Technology (January 1950): 12-13, 32. [Discusses both Dover House and Solar III]  

 

Gray, Robert and Steven Baker. Survey of Solar Buildings. Center for Environmental Research, School of Architecture and Allied Arts, University of Oregon, 1975.  

 

Hesselschwerdt, A.L. "Heating by sunpower: a progress report," Heating & AirConditioning Contractor 48 (October 1956): 44-51.  

 

_________. "Performance of the M.I.T. solar house," in In Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Course Symposium on Space Heating with Solar Energy, Cambridge Mass., 1950, Space heating with solar energy; Proceedings, 99-106. [TH7413 .M414 1950]

 

Hesselschwerdt, A.L., Jr. "Converting solar energy into comfort," Refrigeration Engineering 62, no. 8 (August 1954): 55-59, 94. [TP490.R35]

 

Howe, Hartley E. "Sun furnace in your attic," Popular Science Monthly 154, no. 3 (March 1949): 106-112.  

 

Kobler, J. "Like living in Macy's window," Saturday Evening Post 222 (September 24, 1949): 42-43, 156, 160-162.  

 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Solar house heating." MIT Solar Energy Conversion Research Project, December 1952.

 

Shurcliff, William. Solar-heated buildings: A brief survey. 4th ed. (1974), 14. [TH7413 .S47]