Passive Solar Heating And Cooling

A well designed passive solar home first reduces heating and cooling loads through energy efficiency strategies and then meets those reduced loads in whole or part with solar energy.

Passive solar heating and cooling.

What is passive solar heating cooling. These basic responses to solar heat lead to design. Passive solar design takes advantage of a building s site climate and materials to minimize energy use. When sunlight strikes a building the building materials can reflect transmit or absorb the solar radiation.

In passive solar building design windows walls and floors are made to collect store reflect and distribute solar energy in the form of heat in the winter and reject solar heat in the summer. The key to designing a passive solar building is. Because of the small heating loads of modern homes it is very important to avoid oversizing south facing. With convection systems if you let the air escape you lose all your personal comfort.

A passive solar system does not require the use of mechanical equipment because the heat flow is by natural means such as radiation convection and conductance and the thermal storage is. Most australian climates require both passive heating and cooling. The ultimate goal is to encourage wise passive solar construction moving towards energy independence for all. In addition the heat produced by the sun causes air movement that can be predictable in designed spaces.

This is called passive solar design because unlike active solar heating systems it does not involve the use of mechanical and electrical devices. Conventional homes are typically high r value and airtight such that all of the heating and cooling energy is stored within just the air temperature. Passive solar design refers to the use of the sun s energy for the heating and cooling of living spaces by exposure to the sun. Solar air conditioning refers to any air conditioning cooling system that uses solar power.

The basics on passive heating and cooling homes as when building a green high performance healthy home free heat is a good start. This can be done through passive solar solar thermal energy conversion and photovoltaic conversion sunlight to electricity. Concerns for passive solar heating and cooling have prompted renewed interest in the use of thermal differences for movement of air. While such movement may be affected by appropriate temperature differences in a closed circuit situation i e isolated from the effects of exterior air movements in an open circuit air movement by air.

Passive solar heating uses free heating direct from the sun to dramatically reduce the estimated 40 of energy consumed in the average australian home for space heating and cooling dewha 2008. Passive heating and cooling of homes is not new. The above image is of mesa verde national park the ancestral puebloan cliff dwellings in color.