What is Passive Solar?
Passive solar architecture is the practice of designing and constructing a building in such a way as to take full advantage of the heating and cooling properties of the natural surroundings. Passive solar heating and cooling significantly reduce the energy consumption of a home, office or retail space, through design and the creative arrangement of standard construction materials and methods.
Passive solar design uses the building as a system for collecting and storing the sun's heat during the winter and dissipating unwanted heat during the summer. Passive solar techniques include orienting the building to the sun and including thermal mass in the building. Passive solar buildings rely on the inherent thermal properties of the design to function. No external energy is added to the system. The building itself becomes the core of the heating and cooling system.
|
