Posted on 09/25/2014 11:16:29 AM PDT by Prophet2520
Besides the obvious advantage of a free heating source (as long as the sun continues to rise and set) we have discovered a few more advantages:
(Excerpt) Read more at livinggreenmag.com ...
Any home built in a spot which has access to sunlight should be built with passive solar considerations taken into account.
Passive solar is very friendly to self-sufficient mindset.
1) what do you do in the dead of winter when the sky is overcast for several weeks in a row, and outside temps below zero?
2) what do you do in the dead of summer when you have the hot sun beating down on you all day, our side temps in the high 90’s?
3) why not tell us about the technology rather then give us a bunch of promises? how does it work?
A quick wiki copy and paste:
In passive solar building design, windows, walls, and floors are made to collect, store, and distribute solar energy in the form of heat in the winter and reject solar heat in the summer. This is called passive solar design or climatic design because, unlike active solar heating systems, it does not involve the use of mechanical and electrical devices.[1]
The key to designing a passive solar building is to best take advantage of the local climate. Elements to be considered include window placement and glazing type, thermal insulation, thermal mass, and shading.[2] Passive solar design techniques can be applied most easily to new buildings, but existing buildings can be adapted or “retrofitted”.
Passive solar should be a natural rule in building, and preppers should love it.
Nature’s heating and cooling should be used as much as possible to narrow the range that needs electricity, or wood, to make the temperature perfect.
People have built passive solar homes successfully in less than ideal climates. There is still solar heat gain even on overcast days. Heat loss through a lot of glazing in a very frigid climate is mitigated by decorative insulated panels placed over much of that glazing.
How you go about it will vary depending upon your climate, that is only logical. The high ceilings and large shade trees of the subtropical south that are so good for passive cooling would be miserable in the climate you describe.
If heating is your primary concern, having an earth berm for greater insulation makes sense. Taking full advantage of a southern exposure for maximum sun exposure makes sense. Triple pane glazing facing that southern exposure with dark stone or tile flooring to absorb the solar heat gain makes sense. Lower ceilings to keep the heat closer to occupants rather than rising well above their heads makes sense. Radiant heat circulated under the floor whether it’s plumbed in circulating heated water from a boiler or electrical makes sense. Planting a fairly dense row of deciduous trees to block the sun in warmer weather makes sense.
This is passive solar. All it takes is a little forethought and ingenuity to adapt your dwelling to local conditions to minimize undesirable heat loss or heat gain. What is sort of dumb is building the same house all over the place, willy-nilly with no regard for exposure to the sun. That makes some houses hot and miserable with excessive cooling costs. It also makes some houses cold and expensive to heat.
That’s all passive solar is, paying attention to local conditions and idealizing the structure to take advantage of what exists locally for comfort and economy. It’s different in different locales.
Answer: Freeze.
2) what do you do in the dead of summer when you have the hot sun beating down on you all day, our side temps in the high 90’s?
Answer: Roast.
3) why not tell us about the technology rather then give us a bunch of promises? how does it work?
Answer: because that's the way Enviro-nut social policy works. How it works -- indeed, whether it works -- is besides the point. You can feel good about yourself while you are freezing or roasting because you are "doing something" about the environment.
It’s cheaper to cool a home than to heat it.
Here’s what I did......
My house if more-or-less square. What that means is for the same amount of living space (~3400 sq ft), my house has less exterior wall than a comparable “golden rectangle” home.
My house also faces to the south—where the highest proportion of windows on an exterior wall is on most homes.
I live in NC and while we don’t have the brutal winters experienced in the northeast, the fact that my home faces south means I can take advantage of the sun while it’s in the southern hemisphere during the winter. During the summer the sun simply beats down on an asphalt shingle roof. The thicker insulation in the attic means my house keeps that warmth out of the living space. (as with most others)
During the winter the southern sun (when it’s out) means my heat rarely runs during the day.
I had a guy I went to high school with that was an architect who became a home builder in the late 70s.
He built some wonderful traditional homes in upscale neighborhoods that had some very innovative passive solar coupled with energy recovery systems for the HVAC systems. These homes would use 30% of a regular home in the winter and only 50% in the summer which was a 3 month season in that area.
He sold a dozen but at that time energy was so inexpensive that there was not a good demand for him to stay in the business. At that time the pay-back for the extra cost took 2/3rds of the mortgage life. Now with the higher energy costs, they probably pay back in eight years the initial premium.
One of the features he included were wonderful stone Trombe Walls.
See here for a trombe wall description —
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trombe_wall
You’ve described the home we built 9 years ago...ICF, earth sheltered infloor geothermal heat/cooling.
Passive solar works with the fact that the summer sun angle is much steeper than the winter sun angle. So windows have awnings to where the sun does not come in the glass during the summer but then comes through the window in the winter, striking stone floors that absorb the heat during the day and release it at night.
Smart planting of deciduous trees can play a part as well, as they shade in summer and let sun through in winter.
Will the extra costs out weigh the energy savings?
My dad claims that it never paid for itself but I skeptical. All of their hot water needs were covered during the summer and moderately supplemented in the winter. We live in Colorado where most days are sunny but the winters can be cold.
The thing was a monster with two 6 foot exchange tanks, pumps and the unit on the roof. It didn't use water but some other low maintenance fluid.
Passive energy doesn’t generate electricity. It uses the heat energy to heat the house and provide hot water.
We had a passive solar super insulated home built in 1984 and still live in it. BUT we are in Michigan, not a great state for sunshine. We have some heat gain but depend on a woodstove which can heat the whole house both floors with just 9 or so logs a night. LP gas furnace for the rest of the time. The super insulation was our best move back then. It has saved us a bundle.
1. Switch to traditional forms of energy.
2. You have a lot more hot water. Longer showers, cleaner dishes, etc. :)
3. It can be expensive. Best to do an ROI analysis. It may never pay for itself.
90% of ‘passive solar’ is just basic smart construction and siting.
It’s trying to go extreme with it- like enviro nuts do- that is foolish and expensive,
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