The changing colors of trees in fall indicates that soon we’ll need to turn on the heat. It makes me understand how valuable the sun can be for heating our houses, saving power and reducing bills — the other side of designing a home for living with no air conditioning. Designs for passive solar heating work on two fundamentals: maximizing the amount of sunlight that strikes a house’s interiors in the chilly months and storing that warmth so it is released indoors after the sun goes down. This ideabook looks at some houses to see methods to look for the advantage of each.
Dlux Images
This ideabook does not promote is fully glazing the exterior walls of a building, however much beauty an individual may see in such architecture or the views it enables. Depending on window shades and other apparatus, glass boxes overheat throughout the day from too much direct sunlight and lose heat at night, due to the large expanses of glass and their low R-values (insulating values) in comparison to walls.
Rather, we’ll move from big to little, from the website and home orientation to means of admitting sunlight and trapping that warmth.
Mohler + Ghillino Architects
To acquire the oh-so-valuable beams of the sun, the perfect plan for a home is a linear one with living spaces oriented to the south (from the northern hemisphere; to the north from the southern hemisphere). It’s then good practice to place deciduous trees on the same side, or so the sun is filtered in the hot summer months, but with the leaves off the trees in colder months the sun can penetrate to the house’s interior.
This home near Seattle, designed by Mohler + Ghillino Architects, opens up toward the sun, but it also takes advantage of fir trees to the north to block cold winds in the winter.
Mohler + Ghillino Architects
A peek at the north side of the same house also reveals how it is partially bermed into the floor, a good tactic for taking advantage of the relatively constant temperatures of the earth. Minimal openings around the north also signify that internal temperatures — increased by the sun in colder months — are nicely contained, not lost to the outside through windows, doors and their joints.
Mohler + Ghillino Architects
A peek in the home indicates the relationship between the wall of glass and glass doors we saw just two pictures past. Sunlight enters the open-plan kitchen-dining-living area. A couple of items worth noting are the roof overhang, barely visible here outside the clerestory windows but more noticeable in the previous picture; the overhang cuts down on heat gain that happens in the summer, while allowing the sun in through the winter. Additionally, the concrete flooring act as a thermal mass that absorbs the warmth of the sun, releasing it at night after the sun goes down.
Florence Dept. of Arts & Museums
Among the architects who strongly embraced passive solar heating (in addition to sensible heating through radiant floors, but that is another story) is Frank Lloyd Wright, especially with the Usonian houses he began from the mid-1930s. Shown here is the restored Rosenbaum House in Alabama, especially the back of the home, whose large glass walls face south and west.
As stated in an ideabook on Anthony Denzer’s publication The Solar House, architects have been developing methods of harnessing the sun’s energy to heat houses without the need for solar panels and other mechanical apparatus. Wright is but one early proponent of an approach that continues to this day.
Florence Dept. of Arts & Museums
Wright’s Usonian houses were opened up toward the sun and almost completely closed off to the chilly side. The tiny windows of the latter, combined with the full-height glass doors and screens of the prior, let for cooling breezes in warm months.
Florence Dept. of Arts & Museums
However, the glass doors and cement flooring worked together to embrace and absorb the sun during the winter. Having remained in one of Wright’s Usonian houses during a power outage both in the summer and winter, I can say firsthand that his houses respond remarkably well (given help in the occupants) to the cold and heat.
Lucid Architecture
On approach to this residence in Michigan, an individual can see directly through double-height glass walls on both sides of the linear plan. It’s safe to assume that this aspect faces north, given the tiny openings that surround the double-height space.
Lucid Architecture
On the south side, the construction opens up even more, for the two views and sunlight. Note how the double-height space is set back in the adjacent walls, however, the roof keeps its straight line. This allows for more summer shading within this area, while allowing lots of low sunlight inside.
Lucid Architecture
From inside we can see the way the home receives sunlight into the living room. We can also see some trees in front of the window that help cut down on sunlight but lose their leaves in the winter, therefore not blocking the sun’s rays when needed for passive solar heating.
Hammer & Hand
It’s worth delving here in Passive Houses, which follow German Passivhaus principles, that are focused on superinsulated and supertight outside walls to maintain the warm or cool inside air indoors. (Heat exchangers allow for fresh air without affecting the internal temperature, but that is not something I’ll get into here.)
This home in Oregon, designed by Holst Architecture and constructed by Hammer & Hand, aims to meet Passive House criteria. The view displayed here is what one might expect with such a target: predominantly solid walls with little openings. This follows from the assertion that even triple-insulated glass comes with a lower R-value than solid walls.
Hammer & Hand
However, Passive House principles are not absolute, so the design of these windows follows in the website and its myriad factors: sunlight, wind, views, trees etc.. In the instance of this house in Oregon, larger windows facing south are used to attract in much-needed solar power to the inside. The architect used a second-floor overhanging balcony (among other approaches) to provide some shade from sunlight.
Hammer & Hand
The triple-layer insulated doors and windows let in lots of low sunlight in winter, generating a great deal of heat that is then trapped within the supertight envelope. Ideally, houses following Passive House (and more rigorous net-zero) guidelines absorb enough heat from the sun and other sources to eliminate the need for mechanical heating.
Teton Heritage Builders
This last home, in Jackson, Wyoming, was designed by Chicago’s Nagle Hartray Architecture and constructed by Teton Heritage Builders. The south-facing glass is expansive, but it is strategically inserted into the timber frame to acknowledge the sun inside but also colour the home inside parts.
Teton Heritage Builders
The glass allows the home’s interiors to catch the magnificent distant views while gaining a few direct sunlight. Colors mounted above the sliding wall segments allow for shading in the summer months; significant, given the lack of trees.
Teton Heritage Builders
Elsewhere louvers are mounted before the glass to help shade the inside, while the manicured sections adjacent to the double-height living space also help block sunlight.
For much more on strategically shading interiors so heat can be obtained in the winter instead of the summer, visit this ideabook on louvered sunshades.
More:
Life With Air Conditioning
Look to the Sun for More of Your Lighting