While letting the BBQ warm up just now, I came across this first post in a weekly series from Sustainable Design Update. It's from a great source, so I'll be watching with anticipation.
10 Tips For Building a Sustainable Home
Tip #1 in the weekly series - Design a Passive Solar Home
Every site on the planet has sunlight. Even if your site is overcast a lot of the time, you should design around where the sun is, where it rises and where it sets.
Living at 6,300 feet, in the high desert of New Mexico, where the 24 hour temperature can vary 40 degrees or more per day and where the seasonal changes can be extreme, being a friend with the sun becomes an important component of your life.
In our small adobe home, we befriend the sun in as many ways as we can. Our home is oriented 10 degrees off of direct south, following instructions that this would give us the best solar gain. The southern side has three large double pane windows and a small two story sun room. An 18" overhang sits above all windows. Because of the sun's height in the summer, the overhang shades the home's interior. As the sun path lowers, more sun is allowed into the interior, as the overhang now provides no shading. Perfect! In the summer, you can sit in the cool shade inside the sun room. In the winter, you can snuggle up and enjoy its warmth.
Because winter nights are the time you want to "hold" the heat provided by the sun during the day, we've done a few extra things. Double-celled insular blinds are lowered as the sun lowers. And, our fabulous mud floors hold the heat and disperse it at night.
Passive solar design refers to the use of the sun's energy for the heating and cooling of living spaces. In this approach, the building itself or some element of it takes advantage of natural energy characteristics in materials and air created by exposure to the sun. Passive systems are simple, have few moving parts, and require minimal maintenance and require no mechanical systems.
Operable windows, thermal mass, and thermal chimneys are common elements found in passive design. Operable windows are simply windows that can be opened. Thermal mass refers to materials such as masonry and water that can store heat energy for extended time. Thermal mass will prevent rapid temperature fluctuations. Thermal chimneys create or reinforce the effect of hot air rising to induce air movement for cooling purposes.
Just because you can't afford solar panels just yet, doesn't mean you can't harness the sun's energy for your gain.
Welcome to the world of passive solar design: Believe it or not, your home's windows, walls, and floors can be designed and used to heat your home in the winter and cool it in the summer. Because passive solar design doesn't involve the use of mechanical or electrical devices to move the solar heat through the house, it uses far less energy than a traditionally or even actively solar designed home.
Window placement, insulation, roof overhangs and many other elements all play critical roles in passive solar design. Still curious? This is how a passive solar home design works.
Want to know more? Check out the U.S. Department of Energy's Consumer's Guide to Passive Solar Home Design.
Image www.sxc.hu, mike wade
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