Trends in Transportation - Hydrogen and Fuel Cells: Advances in Transportation and Power - page 145

miles-per-gallon microcars like the BMW Isetta and Morris Minor were
enjoying some success.
Most modern electric cars in the 1960 to 1980 era were subject to
fail, with their pop-riveted bodies and non-existent marketing. The Urba
Sports Trimuter of 1981 was 3-wheeler with a pop-up canopy, needle nose
and a top speed of 60 miles per hour that the owner would build from a
set of $15 plans.
ENERGY TRENDS
The modern suburban home with its car, lawn and undetached
house uses mostly nonrenewable fossil fuels. In the decades after World
War II, American homes consumed increasing amounts of energy. During
the 1960s, energy use per house rose by 30%. However, the high-energy
home was not unavoidable. Even in the 1940s many popular magazines
featured articles on solar building design. Resourceful homes were
oriented toward the south to use the sun's heat in the winter and had
large overhangs to reduce the effects of the summer sun. They conserved
natural resources and appealed to America's wartime conservancy. In the
late 1940s and early 1950s, solar homes received earnest attention from
architects, builders, and the media. The World War II era represented a
time of resource conservation. But, as the 1950s bloomed, the availability of
cheap heating fuels like oil and natural gas reduced the need to conserve.
The federal government reduced investments in solar design and research
efforts and the use of coal, oil, and gas for heating increased. Suburban
home energy use also increased as many discovered air conditioning.
In 1945, few American homes had air conditioning, even though the
technology was available since the 1930s.
As air conditioning units became cheaper and more compact in the
late 1940s, sales boomed. Once the wartime housing shortage ended in the
mid-1950s, builders used air conditioning to increase the demand for new
homes. The addition of air conditioning in new homes allowed buyers
to trade up. Air-conditioned offices helped fuel the demand for central
air conditioning in homes. The National Weather Bureau, in 1959 started
issuing a Discomfort Index, providing a measure of heat and humidity.
The air conditioning industry grew as the index became more popular.
Between 1960 and 1970, the number of air-conditioned houses grew
from one million to nearly eight million. These energy using units added
certain comforts to the home and made life more tolerable in many areas