Solar Fools is an open-source community continuing Steve Baer's passive heating and cooling work under the "CoolSky" brand. The group coalesced around Baer's radiative sky cooling technology and is led by people who collaborated with Baer directly — his son Jose Baer, architect Bruce W. Davis, and Paul Hildebrandt of Zometool.
Website: solarfool.org
Wiki: wiki.solarfool.org
Community: reddit.com/r/CoolSky
Contact: [email protected]
"Design, Build, and Share Ideas for Passive Heating and Cooling (Based on the pioneering work of Steve Baer)"
Replace polluting HVAC systems worldwide with "elegant, affordable, and non-polluting passive systems" based on Steve Baer's CoolSky technology. The community shares project plans, design resources, and builds on the radiative sky cooling work Baer developed at Zomeworks since the 1990s.
The three pillars:
CoolSky is the Solar Fools name for Baer's Cool Cell / radiative sky cooling system. Water in the building skin absorbs interior heat during the day and radiates it to the night sky. In summer it cools; in winter a solar-powered pump reverses the cycle for heating.
Performance claim from the site: interior spaces 65–75°F while outside reached 110–120°F; "100% of the cooling and 95% of the heating with virtually no external energy inputs" in dry climates. Consistent with Baer's own figures and the 2006 NSRC field study.
Commercial track record: "Since the 1990s, CoolSky has been widely used in commercial applications to keep batteries and electronics cool in a desert environment, and on a limited basis in architectural applications."
Jose Baer — Steve Baer's son and estate executor. Land manager at Naturion; owner of Oso Ag, LLC. Site bio: "passionate about leveraging markets for everyone's good… wants to bring his dad's brilliant designs to the world through the interconnectivity of planet, people and nature's elements."
Paul Hildebrandt — Founder and CEO of Zometool Inc. Site bio: "devoted the last 45 years to developing applications of Steve Baer's 31-zone system, including the Zometool, a physical embodiment of quantum math. His dream is to build houses incorporating Baer's passive heating and cooling technology."
Bruce W. Davis — Albuquerque architect, 38+ years in sustainable design, hundreds of Southwest projects. Site bio: "working as a Solar Fool to bring the solar building wisdom of the past into present-day reality." See Bruce W. Davis.
Christina Hildebrandt — Site bio: "helping bring Steve Baer's ingenious passive heating and cooling designs into production, so everyone on the planet can live in safety and comfort." Primary organizer; contact [email protected].
Paul Hildebrandt's Zometool is distinct from Zomeworks. Zometool is an educational toy company built on Baer's zonohedra geometry — the same geometric system behind the Zome structures at Drop City. Hildebrandt describes it as "a physical embodiment of quantum math." His decades-long involvement with the 31-zone geometry connects the CoolSky engineering work to the geometric lineage running through the archive.