Passive Solar Energy, Low Tech In A High Tech World
Author: Alain Prud'homme

As I plan to construct an "off grid" house from in the near
future I am naturally interested in the micro generation of
electricity for the home including all aspects of energy
conservation. A new build will provide me with a clean
slate upon which I can include all the renewable energy and
energy conservation measures I want ' within my alloted
budget.

As I will be building the house from scratch I will be able
to incorporate the full spectrum of renewable energy in the
design of the house from the low-tech to the high-tech.

Passive solar energy is, for me, a "low-tech" approach, as
the words imply. When constructing or remodeling a house,
a bit of advance planning will yield a considerable amount
of possibilities to use solar energy to both heat of cool
your home.

The running costs of a building can be reduced if the
reliance on mechanical or electrical heating, cooling and
lighting can be reduced.

Passive solar energy cannot be tacked on to a building.
Passive solar energy is not an addition to a house that can
be added later or at the end of the building process. It is
therefore essential to consider the possibilities for
passive solar energy right from the start of the building
process i.e. at the planning stages.

Passive solar energy system must be incorporated into and
form an integral part of an energy efficient building and
landscape.

The field of passive solar energy involves building design
and the placement of appropriate building components to
make the best use of sunlight for day lighting, passive
heating and/or passive cooling. Besides saving energy, a
primary benefit of passive solar is improved comfort for
the occupants.

Passive solar energy is a resource that does not require
machinery. Buildings can, if designed correctly, use
daylight throughout the year to capture the sun's heat
during the winter months and minimize it during the summer.
Buildings designed in such a way utilize passive solar
energy to help heat, cool, or light them.

Your energy requirements can be reduced considerably
through the use of passive solar design, better insulation
and energy efficient appliances. The amount of energy
saved will naturally vary on the architectural design of
the house, the landscaping surrounding it, and the
efficiency of the appliances including the illumination.

Many passive solar heating design features also provide day
lighting. The use of natural sunlight to light up or
brighten a building's interior is known as day lighting.
An open floor plan allows the light to reach throughout the
building. This can result in substantial savings on
electric bills, and not only provides a higher quality of
light, but improves productivity and health. Combining
natural day lighting with natural ventilation strategies
can considerably reduce energy consumption, making a
significant contribution to a sustainable building design.

The most common building component used in passive solar
energy is the windows. Over a year, most windows loose more
energy than they gain. Advanced windows systems can
actually be net energy suppliers, with better net annual
energy performance than the most tightly insulated wall.

Advanced windows systems use a combination of double or
triple glazings, low-emissive coatings, argon or krypton
gas fill, and transparent insulation. Choosing an advanced
window system and placing most of them to face southwards
can reduce your annual heating load considerably. Studies
have shown that houses designed using such passive solar
concepts can require less than half the heating energy of
the same house using conventional windows with random
window orientation.

In winter, when the external temperature cools down in the
evening, the thermal mass will radiate that absorbed heat
into the rooms. Proper design and selection of shading
devices can also result in reduced cooling loads in the
summer. Apart from shading devices a passive solar cooling
device such as the thermal chimney can be used to help cool
down a house. It is designed like a smoke chimney to vent
hot air from the house out through the roof.

You can also build small additions to your home, designed
to maximize your homes solar intake, referred to as sun
rooms or conservatories, to capture more more solar energy.
If the ventilation for these additions is properly designed
the incoming energy not only provide heat to the sun room
itself, but can be extended via convection or forced air
systems to help heat the rest of your home.

A significant challenge for the next generation of modern
dwellings is the integration of advanced window
technologies, superior day lighting and passive solar
heating for buildings in cold climates. New technology
developments, in particular with advanced windows and
airtight envelopes, make many older passive solar
"rules-of-thumb" obsolete, and require the use of energy
performance analysis tools.

The use of environmental modelling, a new and invaluable
design tool that provides a detailed computer analysis of
the internal environment with predictions of temperature,
airflow, CO2 concentrations and daylight levels will help
in designing more energy efficient houses.

So with a bit of planning the design of passive solar
energy elements can reduce your energy need which in turn
reduces your electricity generation requirements from
Photovoltaic cells and wind.


About the Author:

Alain Prudhomme's interests include the various
technologies that allow for the micro-generation of
renewable energy for homes and the freedom such
technologies avail the ordinary person. He also writes
about the contentious and controversial issues surrounding
global warming and climate change. You can find more
resources at http://www.renewablehomeenergysolutions.com