Original version

BBC World Service News Internet

Witness History

Podcasts

Factual: Life Stories

Factual: History

History as told by the people who were there

History as told by the people who were there.

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service East Asia

Witness History: World's first solar-heated home

Documentaries

World's first solar-heated home

01/12/2023 GMT

BBC World Service - Witness History, World's first solar-heated home

In 1948, the Dover Sun House, in the US, was the first home to be heated by solar power

It's 75 years since three eminent women came together to create the world's first home to be heated entirely by solar power.

In December 1948, a family of Hungarian refugees moved into the world's first home to be heated entirely by solar power.

What made the Dover Sun House, in Massachusetts, United States, even more special was that it had been created by three women at a time when men dominated the fields of science and engineering.

Heiress Amelia Peabody funded it, architect Eleanor Raymond designed it and biophysicist Maria Telkes created the heating system.
 
Andrew Nemethy, who grew up in the house, tells Vicky Farncombe how it felt to live in an "elongated cheese wedge".

This programme has been updated since its original broadcast. It was edited on 6 December 2023.

(Photo: The Dover Sun House. Credit: Getty Images)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Witness History

World's first solar-heated home

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service News Internet

About BBC World Service