SUNSHINE POWER
An overview on homestead solar heat: Sunshine Power- heating a home by harvesting the energy which flows freely down from above - is a relatively new concept for the homestead
May/June 1971
By the Mother Earth News editors
Sunshine Power—heating a home by harvesting the energy which flows freely down from above—is a relatively new concept for homestead. However, reams of money and heavy brainwork over the years have gone into sophisticaed solar power projects and that research can now be turned to light—or rather, heat—a place in the outback.
RELATED CONTENT
In the past, most buildings which have successfully utilized solar heat have been costly experiments aimed at proving an adaptability for suburban homes. This meant working within the limits of traditional suburban architecture to a large degree. Back at the homestead, outside of this genteel straitjacket, the subtle art of sunshine power can be more properly exploited. If your place is away from it all, and you like the idea of a cheap heating plant which isn't helping to use up the last of our fossil fuels—the sun may be for you!
BIBLIOGRAPHY
THE COMING AGE. OF SOLAR ENERGY, Daniel S.Halacy, Jr., Harper & Row, New York, Evanston, and London, 1964.
DIRECT USE OF THE SUN'S ENERGY, Farrington Daniels, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1963.
ENERGY FOR MAN, Hans Thirring, Harper Torchbook 556, Harper and Row, New York, 1958
THE OWNER-BUILT HOME, Ken Kern, Vita Village Technology Handbook, 1970.
SOLAR ENERGY, Hans Rau (translated by Maxim Schur), T he MacMillan Co., New York, 1964.
WORLD SYMPOSIUM ON APPLIED SOLAR ENERGY/ Proceedings, Stanford Research Institute, Menlo Park, Cal., 1956.
YOUR ENGINEERED HOUSE, Rex Reed, J.P. Lippincott, 1964.
The back issue magazine stacks down at the library also have a lot to offer. For example:
MECHANIX ILLUSTRATED, April 1959, Page 106.
POPULAR MECHANICS, February 1965, Page 89: October 1957, Page 159.
POPULAR SCIENCE, February 1958, Page 110.
Harry E. Thomason, whose sun house we mention, has a MOTHER-sized booklet available titled: "Solar House Models". It's supplied by mail for $1 from: Edmund Scientific Co., 101 East Gloucester Pike, Barrington, New Jersey 08007. The author covers both theory and practice pretty thoroughly . . . from firsthand experience.
The basic principle of solar heating, long used for building greenhouses, is that the transparency of glass is greater for visible light than for the infra-red part of the light spectrum. Early attempts at the solar house relied extensively on this single principle. The first models, developed in the early Thirties by Prof. F. W. Hutchinson, were almost conventional structures save for their oversize windows on the south side. They were fine so long as the sun was shining . . . but eventually used more fuel than conventional homes because—soon after nightfall—the large area of exposed glass lost all the heat which had been gathered during the day. A heating system which goes into reverse at sunset and never starts up at all on cloudy days is obviously not much competition for the fossil fuel burners.
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