2 - From the Solar House to the All-Electric Home: The Postwar Debates over Heating and Cooling

Summary

In September 1943, Newsweek offered a tantalizing glimpse of a possible postwar “dream house.” “One way for America to hedge against future fuel shortages would be to build more solar homes like that of Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Duncan in Homewood, a Chicago suburb,” the piece began. Designed by architect George Keck to receive a maximum amount of the sun's heat in winter and a minimum amount in summer, the Duncans' solar home saved money and resources. Even on the coldest January days, the magazine announced, the couple seldom had to turn on the furnace. This was indeed a home to grip “the imagination of postwar thinkers and builders.”

The Newsweek story was just one of dozens of articles about solar homes to appear before the end of World War II. In a 1944 feature titled “The Proven Merit of a Solar Home,” Reader's Digest called Keck's work “probably the most exciting architectural news in decades.” In movie theaters across the country, millions of Americans saw a newsreel about the exciting promise of solar design. From Architectural Forum to American Builder, the trade press also explored the possibilities. In 1945, a builder of prefabricated homes received nationwide publicity after announcing plans to sell a modern, affordable solar house. According to a Popular Mechanics reviewer, the new house was a breakthrough, the first application of “the solar principle to large-scale production of better, brighter, easily heated homes.”