The Solar Electric House -Energy for the Environmentally Responsive, Energy-Independent Home

Throughout the past decade, it has been impossible for anyone concerned with the quality of life on this planet to avoid speculation on the relationship between energy, economic development and the depletion of our natural resources. It took several "energy crises" and a war to focus our attention on this great planetary issue. Our dependence on nonrenewable sources of energy, which fueled our remarkable record of technological achievement, and the inevitable depletion of those very supplies could dramatically alter our way of life. The distraction of a temporary "oil glut" in the last decade should not diminish our awareness of the problem. The rate at which fossil fuels are consumed may vary, but as surely as the sun rises, the world's oil resources will all too soon be depleted. If it isn't our own well being that is at stake, then surely it is our children's.

Anyone designing a new home should give serious consideration to any device that can save energy and reduce reliance upon fossil fuel. When my wife, Wiley, and I decided to build a new house, we began to evaluate the range of energy-saving alternatives. We reviewed the traditional options: premium insulation, quality windows, and a "tight" house. Early in the process, however I met Steve Strong, who extolled the virtures of solar photovoltaics as a means of producing, electricity for our home--on-site, directly from the sun, without consumption of nonrenewable fuels.

Steve, a pioneer in environmentally-responsive home design, does not think of photovoltaic electricity as a future possibility but as a proven and reliable technology already at work in thousand of diverse applications, providing comfort and convenience without environmental degradation and energy resource depletion. He clearly believes these familiar twentieth-century problems are avoidable, and the solar electric homes he has built stand as eloquent testimony to this. The home Steve designed for us uses solar heating and solar electricity. It is also gracious, comfortable and a delight to live in. I'm pleased to be a part of the pioneering of residential photovoltaics.

This book represents a major step in bringing the photovoltaic revolution closer to reality. Steve shows us an elegant technology that's safe, reliable, environmentally responsible and here, today. Use this book to learn how solar electricity will figure into your future. Read it, as well, as a valuable case history illustrating American ingenuity at work in search of a better tomorrow.

Gilbert M. Grosvenor

President, National Geographic Society

Washington, DC