The harnessing of the sun's direct energy to heat and cool homes and to heat water for household uses is changing residential architecture across America. As the use of conventional fuels is reduced globally, residential solar systems will become a common sight in the 1980s and beyond. Today, there is a large variety of residential solar designs because the technology is young, decentralized, and rapidly growing and because there is much diversity in climates, latitudes, and architectural styles in the regions where the technology is applied. Each solar design has a unique visual impact. With rational and imaginative planning, communities can in most cases balance the land-use equities of solar homeowners and their neighbors so as to achieve cost-effective solar designs that meet the aesthetic and architectural standards of the community.

Several communities have pioneered in the development of aesthetic guidelines for residential solar designs. Their experience is a natural starting point for any individual or community planning group involved in solar land-use issues.¹ The American Planning Association (APA) has also done ground-breaking work in its recent manual, Residential Solar Design Review, prepared for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).² That manual suggests ways to modify both solar designs and conventional design restrictions to overcome aesthetic barriers. It is very useful for establishing objective standards of architectural "reasonableness" for a community's solar designs.