Steve Baer Quotes

American inventor (1938–2024)

(October 13th, 1938 to May 17th, 2024) was an American inventor and pioneer of passive solar technology. Baer pioneered and helped popularize the use of zomes. He took a number of solar power patents, wrote a number of books and publicized his work. Baer served on the board of directors of the U.S. Section of the , and on the board of the New Mexico Association. He was the founder, chairman of the board, president, and director of research at Zomeworks Corporation. He was the creator of Zome architecture as well as one of creators of , a construction set educational toy or device that had evolved from playground climbers and other structures that had been created by Zomeworks.

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Alternative Names: Steve C. Baer • Steven Baer • S.C. Baer

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Stretching zones allows... buildings of different shapes using the same kinds of components.

The tendency is not to care about spending somebody else's money—so even at this time when we're supposed to be conserving energy we're instituting policies that make people conserve less.

[I]f folks don’t like the idea once they’ve given it the once-over, we’ll be glad to buy the plans back at the full $15.00 purchase price.

A particularly attractive use of insulating panels is to have them double as reflectors—during the day they bounce additional energy through the same window they will insulate at night. Often it is most cost-effective to have a movable reflector outside a south window or skylight that is changed seasonally... not daily.

We've gone too far in letting the government into our affairs...

[O]ur next concern in heating the building is what keeps the earth warm..? What supplies the United States with the energy to maintain an average temperature of 60 degrees Fahrenheit as it spins in empty space at absolute zero? This is a heating contract that no oil company would be quick to try and fill.

The forms possible using this system are limitless; there is no attempt here to explore these possibilities—the examples shown are small probings. The booklet describes the mathematics of the process that creates these limitless forms.

There is a mistake-proof flange joint for both A and C connections if one hierarchy is introduced. You must always orient the joint to suit A lines.

So many... good ideas... worked... but they couldn’t keep working. Some of the first buildings we put up weren’t good buildings because they leaked. Many of those first solar heaters weren’t... very good...

The and the are duals of each other—the vertices of one match the face midpoints of the other and vice versa.

I want to build buildings and design systems that are beautiful and simple and that really work. ...It’s not ...exotic or earthshaking to fill 55-gallon drums with water, paint them black and place them in the walls of a home for use as solar collectors ...but it works.

We built and did solar heating experiments... solar heated a dome in 1967 with a big chimney—a rock storage bin—down the side of a hill. Many of those first things didn’t... work... well. I didn’t know what I was doing.