Steve Baer and Dave Harrison filed 20 patents and applications between 1969 and 2010, spanning osmotic heat transfer, zonohedra geometry, passive solar collection, night-sky radiative cooling, and battery ventilation. Together they constitute a 41-year engineering record of a single sustained thermal vision. All PDFs are in the archive.
| Patent | Title | Inventor | Assignee | Filed | Granted | Product |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US 3,561,525 | Heat pipe condensate return | Baer | Energy Conversion Systems | Jul 1969 | Feb 1971 | Osmotic heat pipe |
| US 3,618,569 | Water reservoir heat transfer | Baer | Individual | Jul 1969 | Nov 1971 | Stock pond melter |
| US 3,722,153 | Structural system | Baer | Zomeworks | May 1970 | Mar 1973 | Zome |
| US 3,884,414 | Solar heating device | Baer | Zomeworks | Apr 1974 | May 1975 | Skylid |
| US 3,903,665 | Heat energy transmission control panel | Harrison | Individual | Nov 1973 | Sep 1975 | Beadwall |
| US 4,275,712 | Suntracking device | Baer | Zomeworks | Oct 1979 | Jun 1981 | Sunbender |
| US 4,476,854 | Gas spring solar tracker | Baer | Zomeworks | Nov 1983 | Oct 1984 | Sunbender |
| US 4,505,255 | Summer/winter solar control louver | Baer | Zomeworks | Nov 1983 | Mar 1985 | Sunbender |
| US 4,528,976 | Thermal control for solar collector | Baer | Zomeworks | Jun 1984 | Jul 1985 | Solar tracker overheating protection |
| US 4,832,001 | Lightweight solar panel support | Baer | Zomeworks | May 1987 | May 1989 | Sunbender |
| US 4,913,985 | Battery temperature regulation | Baer | Zomeworks | Feb 1989 | Apr 1990 | Battery cabinet / Cool Cell |
| US 5,070,933 | Temperature regulating system | Baer | Zomeworks | Jan 1991 | Dec 1991 | Battery cabinet / Cool Cell |
| US 5,143,053 | Solar collector tube plate | Baer | Zomeworks | Mar 1991 | Sep 1992 | Freeze-tolerant collector |
| US 5,316,872 | Passive cooling system | Baer | Zomeworks | Dec 1992 | May 1994 | Battery cabinet / Cool Cell |
| US 5,513,696 | Passive temperature regulating | Baer | Zomeworks | — | Apr 1996 | Cool Cell precursor |
| US 5,603,656 | Passive ventilation device (H₂) | Baer + Harrison | Zomeworks | Sep 1995 | Feb 1997 | Battery H₂ venting |
| US 5,609,200 | Integral roof cooling container | Harrison | Zomeworks | Jul 1994 | Mar 1997 | Cool Cell transitional (lapsed 2001) |
| US 5,660,587 | Passive ventilation system (H₂) | Baer + Harrison | Zomeworks | Jul 1995 | Aug 1997 | Battery H₂ venting |
| US 6,357,512 B1 | Passive heating and cooling | Baer | Zomeworks | Jul 2000 | Mar 2002 | Cool Cell |
| US 20,080,000,435 A1 | Solar thermal tube plate heat exchanger | Baer + Tan | Zomeworks | May 2007 | — | Application; never granted |
| US 20,100,294,265 A1 | Dual axis support for high wind solar panels | Baer + Tan | Zomeworks | — | Nov 2010 (pub.) | Application; grant status unknown |
US 3,722,153 → US 3,884,414 → US 4,275,712 → US 4,476,854 → US 4,505,255 → US 4,528,976 → US 4,832,001 → US 20,100,294,265
Starts with the zonohedra structural system (1970) that creates the south-facing surfaces. Moves through Skylid (passive louver, freon-actuated) to Sunbender (mirrored tracker that directs winter sun and provides summer shade). The 1984–1989 patents refine the tracker mechanism and add overheating protection.
US 3,618,569 → US 4,913,985 → US 5,070,933 → US 5,316,872 → US 5,513,696 → US 5,609,200 → US 6,357,512 B1
Starts with a sealed convection loop for a stock pond (1969) — density-driven passive heat transfer, no electricity, no moving parts. The same principle scales through the battery cabinet series (1990–1994) and Harrison's integral roof container (1994) to the Cool Cell (2002). The thermosiphon that circulates water between ceiling reservoir and roof radiator is the direct descendant of the stock pond melter's convection loop.
Energy Conversion Systems, Inc. — one patent (US 3,561,525, osmotic heat pipe, 1969). Baer had a separate engineering vehicle at Zomeworks' founding.
Individual — two patents held personally:
Both were commercialized through Zomeworks despite personal ownership.
Zomeworks Corp — all remaining patents from 1970 onward.
The 1969 filing date is the earliest. US 3,561,525 and US 3,618,569 were both filed July 1969 — the year Zomeworks was co-founded. Baer was doing thermal physics (osmotic heat transfer, passive convection) simultaneously with the geometry work, before Zomeworks had a name in the public record.
Dave Harrison is a co-author of the Cool Cell lineage. Beadwall (personal patent, 1973), integral roof cooling container (Zomeworks, 1994), two H₂ venting patents with Baer (1995), VP of Zomeworks with "12+ years with Cool Cell technology." The Cool Cell was not solely Baer's engineering — it was a Harrison-Baer collaboration.
Two late applications with Kevin Tan, neither granted. US 20,080,000,435 (solar thermal tube plate heat exchanger, filed May 2007, published January 2008) and US 20,100,294,265 (dual axis support for high wind solar panels, published November 2010) were both co-invented with Kevin Tan and assigned to Zomeworks. Neither appears in the granted patent record. The second extends the collection/shading lineage 21 years after US 4,832,001 (1989).
The Beadwall anomaly. Harrison assigned US 3,903,665 to himself personally in 1973 while working with Zomeworks. Baer's Sunspots (1975) describes it as one of the finest inventions in the archive: "Such elegant inventions as the beadwall indicate that the healthy response of architecture to increasing energy costs may be increased use of glass in building walls rather than a retreat to underground buildings."
US 3,722,153 (Zome structural system) has a Canadian equivalent: CA 949,279 A. Previously ingested as a separate patent in the archive. Whether other US patents have Canadian equivalents is not confirmed.