Let It Shine: Solar Design in Ancient Greece

Reader Contribution by John Perlin
Published on December 11, 2013
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The following post summarizes the author’s Chapter 2 of Let It Shine: The 6,000-Year Story of Solar Energy.

Never in the history of the world has there been such a high-ranking member of society to advocate passive solar architecture than Socrates. He felt so strongly for building with the sun in mind that he even set up a class to teach his acolytes how the finer points of putting up a passive solar house.

Socrates began the course by asking, “When someone wishes to build the proper house, must he make it as pleasant to live in and as useful as it can be? And is it not pleasant to have the house cool in summer and warm in winter?” the sage continued. “Now in houses with a southern orientation, the sun’s rays penetrate into the porticoes [covered porches], but in summer the path of the sun is right over our heads and above the roof, so we have shade…” Therefore, Socrates concluded, it is in such a designed house “that the owner can find a pleasant retreat in all seasons…which makes the house at once the most useful and most beautiful.”

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