Passive and active solar strategies together with the adoption of energy conservation measures and the integration of new materials and technologies can lead to dramatic reductions of 75-90 per cent in the energy consumption in domestic buildings. The objective of Task 13 of the IEA's Solar Heating and Cooling Programme was to advance solar building technologies and demonstrate this potential by designing and then constructing buildings that meet very low energy consumption targets while maintaining a good indoor climate. The strategies, systems, materials and ideas that evolved out of the programme are collected in this text along with details of 15 experimental houses themselves, built in very different climates.
