Steve Baer and the Double-Play Thermosiphon: Tracing a Passive Solar Innovation in the Steppes of New Mexico

Author
Cem S. Kayatekin

Journal
ICON, Volume 30, Issue 2 (2025)

DOI
https://doi.org/10.11590/icon.2025.2.05

Abstract
The discourse concerning the work of Steve Baer, while extensive, does not capture the full depth and trajectory of his innovations within the domain of passive solar heating and cooling. The more advanced work that he developed across his career has been broadly overlooked.

This paper focuses on one such item from Baer’s overlooked portfolio, a water-based thermosiphon passive heating and cooling system, which Baer would refer to as a double-play structure. It was a project that Baer was deeply invested in, starting with its development in the late 1960s, and continuing with refinements to the system that he would pursue well into the last stages of his career.

This paper sheds light on how this specific innovation was seeded in the late 1960s, how it was refined across the 1980s–2010s, and where the bleeding edge of the double-play thermosiphon concept lies today.

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