Sunday, January 15 — There’s been a lot of emphasis lately on making houses that are more energy efficient — with better insulation and windows that seal out heat and cold. Many feature the use of solar panels to capture the natural heat of the sun. The first house in America with solar heating and radiation cooling opened on this date in 1955 in Tucson, Arizona. A large, slanting slab of steel and glass converted sunlight into heat, which was vented into the house. In America’s 118 million occupied housing units, gas remains the most common heating fuel, outpacing electricity — about 57 million to 45 million. Solar energy is the power source for just under 107,000 homes in the U.S., or a bit over point-zero-nine percent of the total.
You can find more facts about America’s people, places and economy, from the American Community Survey here.
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