#cool-cell
23 articles · 43 raw sources · 7 inventory
A 2002 gathering documented in the Cool Cell development archive by a surviving list of attendees.
1961 Rome conference where Bliss presented his Arizona nocturnal radiation cooling demonstration; its proceedings appear in the Solar Fool print collection.
Newspaper that ran the August 21, 2000 article 'Cool pipes chill room naturally', the earliest known mainstream press coverage of the Cool Cell in the archive.
Company co-founded by Steve Baer in 1969 that developed and sold the DrumWall, Skylid, Sunbender, battery cabinets, Cool Cell, and Double Play, and passed to Benjamin Rodefer's sol…
Co-editor of Activism in Architecture: Bright Dreams of Passive Energy Design (Routledge, 2018).
Primary organizer and contact of Solar Fools, working to bring Steve Baer's passive heating and cooling designs into production.
Author of How Buildings Work (Oxford, 1995), quoted in Baer's di-thermal roof materials on why ceiling radiant panels feel better than floor systems.
Albuquerque Journal staff writer who authored the August 21, 2000 article 'Cool pipes chill room naturally' about Zomeworks' Cool Cell.
New Mexico city home to Bruce Davis's practice, the AIA chapter Baer addressed in 2009, and the 1956 Bridgers & Paxton solar-heated office building.
Bridgers & Paxton's 1956 office headquarters at 213 Truman St. SE, Albuquerque, widely called the world's first solar-heated commercial office building, now on the National Registe…
David Bainbridge's 1981 practitioner's guide (reissued 2005) to water-wall thermal mass, which independently corroborates the Baer House DrumWall installation.
2018 Routledge volume (eds. McDonald & Dayer) for which Baer wrote the chapter 'Harold Hay's influence and the Zomeworks Corporation', formally acknowledging Hay as an upstream inf…
Zomeworks' passive climate-control system connecting ceiling water reservoirs to roof-mounted radiator/absorbers by thermosiphon, cooling buildings without electricity, refrigerant…
Baer's January 1984 SUNPAPER essay containing Baer House temperature data from August 1983, U-zero ventilation theory, and a LASL critique.
Solar Fools' brand name for Baer's Cool Cell / radiative sky cooling system, used commercially since the 1990s to cool batteries and electronics in desert environments.
Baer's September 2004 letter as Zomeworks president reporting the US 6,357,512 patent, a $93,000 capital raise at $3.00/share, and the roll-form franchise vision.
Stewart Brand's December 7, 1972 Rolling Stone article on countercultural computing that quotes Baer as 'dome and solar designer Steve Baer from dusty Albuquerque'.
1990 Battery Temperature Regulation System patent, the first in the Cool Cell lineage, which commercially proved night-sky radiative cooling in telephone-company battery cabinets.
1991 Temperature Regulating System patent adding a stratifying insulation layer to a ceiling-mounted water container — the Cool Cell ceiling reservoir concept.
1995/1996 corrugated-roof passive temperature regulating patent mating blow-molded water containers to roll-formed metal roofing, later refined into the 2001 Cool Cell patent.
Dave Harrison's 1997 Integral Roof Cooling Container patent — water containers molded directly onto metal roof sections, cooled by night-sky radiation — bridging the battery cabine…
The 2002 Passive Heating and Cooling System patent held by Zomeworks — the Cool Cell architectural system patent underpinning the Double Play.
Hart and Picciotto's work expanding the mathematical principles of Baer's structural designs, intersecting with Zometool.
Inventory
Zomeworks engineering drawing of the aluminum rolled formed roof system for Cool Cell, showing roofing cap, copper pipe manifolds, and nailing flange details.
Zomeworks Cool Cell marketing and technical materials — Q&A sheet, 'How To Get Started' services page, Cool Cell system diagram, and 'Harness the Sky' diagram.
Hand-drawn schematic showing the Cool Cell's three seasonal operating modes: summer day heat absorption, summer night sky radiation, and winter solar collection.
Three figures (9-6, 9-7, 9-8) from the Di-Thermal Roofs technical document.
Seven open questions about Andy Shack from the CoolSky/Melton iterations document: identity of 'Andy', whether it still stands, radiator material, louver specs, white plate purpose…
Six open questions about Cool Cell from the CoolSky/Melton iterations document: other architectural installations, cabinet sales data, measured performance, 2002 production timetab…
The container serves as Baer family storage with water-on-top cooling, but the original design intent is unclear — was it built to test an entirely new system?
Raw sources
- US5513696A — Passive Temperature Regulating System for a Building (Baer, 1995) · 2026-07-18
- ABQ Journal — Cool pipes chill room naturally (Zomeworks Cool Cell) · 2026-02-10
- Aluminum Rolled Formed Roof (Cool Cell Roof System) · 2026-02-10
- Cool Cell operating-modes schematic · 2026-07-18
- Cool Cell · 2026-02-10
- Cool Cell™ Architectural Climate-Control · 2026-02-09
- Cool Cell Docs — Work Leading Up to the Architectural Cool Cell (Page 1) · 2026-02-10
- Cool Cell Docs — Work Leading Up to the Architectural Cool Cell (Page 2) · 2026-02-10
- Di-Thermal Roofs · 2026-02-09
- Di-Thermal Roofs · 2026-02-10
- Cool Cell Docs — Di-Thermal Roofs (Page 1) · 2026-02-10
- Cool Cell Docs — Di-Thermal Roofs (Page 2) · 2026-02-10
- Di-Thermal Roofs · 2026-02-10
- Cool Cell Docs — Night and Day · 2026-02-10
- Night and Day · 2026-02-10
- Night and Day · 2026-02-10
- Storing Heat for Cloudy Winter Days and Coolth for Sunny Summer Nights · 2026-02-09
- Storing Heat for Cloudy Winter Days and Coolth for Sunny Summer Nights (alternate) · 2026-02-10
- Storing Heat for Cloudy Winter Days and Coolth for Sunny Summer Nights · 2026-02-10
- Storing Heat for Cloudy Winter Days and Coolth for Sunny Summer Nights · 2026-02-10
- Storage (May 2002) · 2026-02-09
- Cool Cell Docs — Storage May 2002 (Page 1) · 2026-02-10
- Cool Cell Docs — Storage May 2002 (Page 2) · 2026-02-10
- Storage · 2026-02-09
- Storage (May 2002) · 2026-02-09
- Storage (Steve Baer) · 2026-07-18
- Di Thermal Cool Cell™ Systems — Part of Passive Solar · 2026-02-09
- Cooling with Pool Heaters · 2026-02-09
- Cooling with Pool Heaters (alternate copy) · 2026-02-09
- Cool Cell Docs — Cooling with Pool Heaters (Page 1) · 2026-02-09
- Cool Cell Docs — Cooling with Pool Heaters (Page 2) · 2026-02-09
- Cooling with Pool Heaters - July 2002 · 2026-02-09
- Cool Cell™ Architectural — Background and Work Leading Up · 2026-02-09
- Temperatures of Heated vs Unheated Plates (October 2002) · 2026-02-09
- Temperatures of Heated vs Unheated Plates (October 2002) · 2026-02-09
- Temperature of Heated vs Unheated Plates · 2026-02-09
- Double Plays — Old and New · 2026-07-18
- Geographical Variation in Performance of an Unglazed Solar System · 2026-07-18
- Unglazed Solar Collectors for Solar Water Heaters (Steve Baer) · 2026-07-18
- Cool Cell Q&A — Zomeworks Corporation · 2026-02-09
- How To Get Started — Cool Cell Installation · 2026-02-09
- SolarFool Marketing Media (CoolSky / Cool Cell) · 2026-07-18
- SolarFool Meeting Oct 14 — KB Melton Presentation Review · 2026-10-15