passive solar buildings

passive solar buildings

Passive Solar House Plans

Are you interested in building an energy efficient house? If so, passive solar house plans can help you achieve significant savings in energy costs. It is important to design a passive solar house plan customized to the location in which you want to build. The needs of a homeowner in North Dakota will be different from one who lives in Arizona or Florida. In a passive solar home design, the sun's energy is collected, stored, and distributed in the cold months and deflected or blocked in the hot months. During cold periods, the sun's heat is collected through windows placed on south-facing walls, because this is where the solar energy will be the greatest. A minimal number of windows may be used on north, east, and west walls to minimize heat loss during cold weather. During hot periods, the use of awnings and window coverings help to block the sun's rays. In predominantly hot areas, such as the southwest or southeast of the United States, passive solar homes may forgo windows on certain sides of the house and utilize deep roof overhangs to shade the windows that are there. Passive solar designs utilize "thermal mass" principles. Thermal mass is simply the material, such as concrete or ceramic tile, that collects the solar energy then releases it slowly back into the designated space. For this reason, using a form of concrete construction, such as ICF (insulating concrete forms) is a big plus. You can learn more about ICF homes, their construction, and their insulating abilities at www.wisehomedesign.com/icf-homes.html.

Passive solar design comprises four elements:

Windows: The "collectors" through which sunlight enters the structure. In passive solar designs, most of the windows will be on the south side of the home to maximize cold weather heating, and there may be a minimal number of windows or glass doors on the north, east or west walls.

Thermal Mass Materials: This is usually concrete construction and tile floors.

Heat Distribution: Fans, blowers, and ducts can be used to help the solar heat circulate to different areas of the house once it has entered through the windows.

Heating Control: Specially designed roof overhangs, blinds, shades, vents, and awnings can all be utilized to control the amount of solar heat entering the home.

In addition to passive solar houses, there are active solar homes that trap the sun's energy in the same manner as described above. But taking it a step further, the active solar home can store and distribute the energy for use at other times. Using the right type of solar equipment, solar energy can also be converted to electricity for heating, cooling, and lighting. Solar panels can be installed on the roof for additional collecting. You'll find more information about solar house plans at www.wisehomedesign.com/passive-solar-house.html

About the Author

Experienced in building energy efficient homes, Mike O'Gorman is passionate about homes that maximize their use of energy and space. At http://www.WiseHomeDesign.com there's more valuable information about house planning and design, and energy efficient home building. Copyright Notice: You may freely republish this article, provided the text, author credit, the active links, and this copyright notice remain intact.

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