Unbuilt, untested, performance unknown: Libbey-owens-ford and "your solar house"

Libbey-Owens-Ford, as one the first developers of a sealed, double-glazed window, was engaged in the development of a 'passive solar house' design program. The result of this design program was the publication of the book Your Solar House, by Libbey-Owens-Ford and Simon & Schuster. This research is an effort to help in the process of understanding how this series of experimental building designs would have performed had they been built. This paper discusses the design inspiration and intent behind the publication of the book titled Your Solar House, in 1947. Using contemporary methods for the design and analysis of passive solar buildings, one of the houses is tested for its performance characteristics. This paper demonstrates that the predictive models of performance for solar homes designed in the post 1970s era are not applicable to buildings designed in the pre 1970's era. Using the house designed by Louis Kahn and Oscar Stonorov (for the state of Pennsylvania) as a case example, the performance criteria by which most contemporary buildings are designed are applied and the house is evaluated relative to these criteria.