SEE (SUPER ENERGY EFFICIENT) HOUSING - Author Biography

Thomas Avit Peterson grew up in Plymouth, Massachusetts. He received his BSBA in Management from Southeastern Massachusetts University (now University of Massachusetts – Dartmouth) in 1971. He continued his academic training receiving an MBA from Tulane University in New Orleans in 1973, where he specialized in Marketing.

He began his business career doing Marketing Research for major corporate retailers with home offices located in the Northeast - - including Hannaford Bros. Supermarkets (Maine), Wellby Drugstores (Maine), Grossman’s & Moore’s home centers (Mass.), Zayre discount department stores (Mass.), and T. J. Maxx clothing stores (Mass.). The majority of this work centered on doing field research and then writing detailed reports for and giving lengthy presentations to the top management of his various corporate employers.

His interest in utilizing solar energy began in 1975 when he started researching the basic concepts. In 1979 he left the corporate world to design and build his own experimental solar home. That was soon followed by the formation of a construction company, Solar Design & Construction that builds Sunroom additions and Passive Solar homes. In the beginning he built what was then considered to be heavily insulated buildings in Maine using 2 x 6 construction with six inches of insulation. In the early 1980’s he started to experiment with and utilize double-wall construction as well as other super insulation techniques and refine his passive solar designs. Realizing that most people have limited funds, his designs have always emphasized cost containment.

Paralleling his construction career, he began teaching Marketing and Management courses, first at St. Joseph’s College in Windham, Maine then at the University of Southern Maine In Portland. This experience honed his presentation skills and he later helped develop government sponsored export seminar programs for both Federal and Provincial governments for experienced businesses in the Canadian Maritime Provinces (New Brunswick & Nova Scotia). As his knowledge of passive solar and super insulation grew, he also began to market his company through written articles & pamphlets, and by conducting seminars of these concepts at home shows.

In his recent attempts to market two SEE homes built on speculation in Windham, Maine, he researched all the current information and programs that are available to promote such dwellings. He was amazed at both, 1) what government and private support information and programs were available, such as the Energy Star Housing and LEEDS programs, and 2) also the almost total lack of awareness of the information with the general public, local governments, and various housing related institutions (mortgage companies, etc). In doing further financial research, he was also amazed that these homes could cover their extra cost the first year after they were built, when financed with a conventional mortgage.

He then looked at all of the information that he had gathered and saw that a very compelling argument could easily be made for building every home in the United States as an SEE home and further renovating every existing home to SEE standards. He also found that none of this information was put together anywhere in a complete and comprehensive package that could sell the concept as a major solution to greenhouse gas pollution as well as a way to save on energy use and rising energy costs for the future economic stability of the United States. His solution to that problem is the writing of this book.

Given the deteriorating condition of our environment and the continually rising costs of energy, he feels that it is important to pass on all that he has learned about SEE housing to others in as timely a fashion as possible.