10092010
Passive Solar Design advice
By Eco Guy
12:06am 10th September 2010
Passive Solar design can be applied to existing buildings as well as new buildings. We explain some useful techniques and give links to useful resources.
Passive Solar Design
Passive Solar Design, simply put,is designing a building so that it maximizes using the Sun's Energy to produce a stable temperature and
environment inside the building. Although in Summer this means the design must also exclude the Sun from heating the internal of the building.
That's it in essence, and actually it is nothing new,
passive solar design has been practiced for thousands of years by many different cultures, it just that we now have a 'label' to attach to a collection of techniques for effective use of the Sun in building design.
For instance it is possible, by the correct sizing of shading over a window, to set things up so that in Summer the Sun does not shine directly on the glass, whereas in Winter it is able to enter the building and provide free heating. You can also set on the building so that natural 'trade winds' can be used to cool a building at night. When this is combined with something called 'thermal mass' such cooling can carry through to the following day..
Links
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