Design with the sun in mind
Sunlight can provide ample heat, light, and shade and induce summertime ventilation into the well-designed home. Passive solar design can reduce heating and cooling energy bills, increase spatial vitality, and improve comfort. Inherently flexible passive solar design principles typically accrue energy benefits with low maintenance risks over the life of the building.
Design techniques
Passive solar design integrates a combination of building features to reduce or even eliminate the need for mechanical cooling and heating and daytime artificial lighting. Designers and builders pay particular attention to the sun to minimize heating and cooling needs. The design does not need to be complex, but it does involve knowledge of solar geometry, window technology, and local climate. Given the proper building site, virtually any type of architecture can integrate passive solar design. Passive solar heating techniques generally fall into one of three categories: direct gain, indirect gain, and isolated gain. Direct gain is solar radiation that directly penetrates and is stored in the living space. Indirect gain collects, stores, and distributes solar radiation using some thermal storage material (e.g., Trombé wall). Conduction, radiation, or convection then transfers the energy indoors. Isolated gain systems (e.g., sunspace) collect solar radiation in an area that can be selectively closed off or opened to the rest of the house. Passive solar design is not new. In fact, ancient civilizations used passive solar design. What is new are building materials, methods, and software that can improve the design and integration of passive solar principles into modern residential structures. (continued…)
