16 Facts About Passive solar

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.

Key to designing a passive solar building is to best take advantage of the local climate performing an accurate site analysis.

Passive solar cooling is the use of similar design principles to reduce summer cooling requirements.

Passive solar technologies include direct and indirect solar gain for space heating, solar water heating systems based on the thermosiphon, use of thermal mass and phase-change materials for slowing indoor air temperature swings, solar cookers, the solar chimney for enhancing natural ventilation, and earth sheltering.

Since 1979, Passive Solar Building Design has been a critical element of achieving zero energy by educational institution experiments, and governments around the world, including the U S Department of Energy, and the energy research scientists that they have supported for decades.

Passive solar fraction is the percentage of the required heat load met by PSH and hence represents potential reduction in heating costs.

Air is drawn into the lower vent, then into the space between the glass and wall to get heated by Passive solar radiation, increasing its temperature and causing it to rise, and then exit through the top vent back into the indoor space.

Such venting makes the system act as a Passive solar chimney driving air through the building during the day.

Not many Passive solar roofs have been built, and there is limited information on the design, cost, performance, and construction details of thermal storage roofs.

The only remaining drawback to this kind of thermal mass Passive solar architecture is the absence of a basement, as in any slab-on grade design.

In some cases, horizontal skylights are used with reflectors to increase the intensity of Passive solar radiation, depending on the roof angle of incidence.

Amount of Passive solar gain transmitted through glass is affected by the angle of the incident Passive solar radiation.

Energy-efficient landscaping materials for careful passive solar choices include hardscape building material and "softscape" plants.

Passive solar building design sometimes uses limited electrical and mechanical controls to operate dampers, insulating shutters, shades, awnings, or reflectors.

Passive solar building design is often a foundational element of a cost-effective zero energy building.

Passive solar is a core building design strategy for passive survivability, along with other passive strategies.