UCLA Students Join Research With Utility

Under a three-year agreement with San Diego Gas & Electric Co., a UCLA architecture professor and his students are investigating new approaches for heating and cooling houses through solar and other natural energy sources.

Prof. Baruch Givoni and his students will work at the Pala Passive Solar Facilities station, 22 miles east of Oceanside, bordering the Pala Indian Reservation in northern San Diego County. The station, built in 1981, consists of eight small test houses.

“Much of our research will focus on passive solar energy systems in which such elements as foundations, roofs, windows, floors and partitions are integrated to make each house its own self-sustaining ‘energy machine,’ ” Givoni said.

Field work by Givoni and his graduate students will deal largely with the problems of cooling houses during periods of highest electricity demands--typically when outside temperatures are high and humidity is low.