Lays out in plain language what an owner/builder or designer will need to know about siting, designing, constructing, and living in a solar adobe home. Van Dresser’s text and pictures provide a beginner’s course in adobe construction and passive solar heat collection, including suggestions for natural heat circulation and heat storage in thermal mass. Included are sample house plans, ideas for solar hot water heaters, and plans-to-scale for solar crop dryers.

How-To House Construction Solar Anyone who has been in a solar house, on a cold winter day has felt the warmth and comfort of its natural radiant heat. In 1958, solar pioneer Peter van Dresser built his first solor-heated house, one of the two oldest in the United States. In Passive Solar House Basics, van Dresser lats out in text and illustrations the principles an owner builder will need to know in siting, designing, building, and living in their solar house. Several sample house plans, ideas for solar hot water heaters, and plans for solar crop dryers give the solar enthusiast the basic information they will need to begin plans on their energy efficient home. In this book van Dresser shows that solar energy can be economically harnessed by simple means. Means that are within the grasp of the average homeowner and builder. “…an everyman’s guide that could easily become the textbook for the beginning professional in the arts and sciences of buildings.” -Jeffrey Cook, College of Architecture Arizone State University