1947, Rosenberg House, designed by a young aeronautical engineer, Arthur Brown, in Scottsdale, Az. A 100" long solar exposure with continuous sunspace, even sports a sunshade to reduce high summer sun, which was since removed, tall sunlight would largely reflect away due to the angle, lower summer sun from east and west matter more, these have to be shaded to avoid overheating. The sunroom runs the entire width,, is some 10" deep, with a brick wall between it and livingspace. The wall conducts heat into the north side livingspace, in about twelve hours, and the wall is then ready for another solar charge, thus equalizing temps throughout the day, the sunroom would swing more, but makes a delightful spot for a crisp sunshiny wintermorning breakfast.
The sunroom was a traditional passive solar feature on many farmhouses, smart carpenters would add a mudroom/sunroom. always on the south side as everybody was aware of the virtue of passive solar, and built accordingly. Here seedlings can be started in spring, and kept warm at night, , a perfect sheltered space for a workshop, potting shed, season extender.
nick pine, alt.solar mainstay, here with a solar system that is simple and low cost, he has pioneered many simple low cost methods and is very active in newsgroup forums at alt.solar.thermal, here: http://groups.google.com/group/alt.solar.thermal?hl=en newsgroups on renewable energy, here: http://groups.google.com/group/alt.energy.renewable/
house i built, lived in, sunroom doubles as winter workshop, spring plant startingroom, and as temp goes up, a fan takes the excess heat into basement storage, to keep the house toasty for several days in early spring. Observe tall glass under a suitable roof overhang allowing winter light to fall deep into the house, spreading light everywhere, making us appreciate the warming rays on a winter morning!
cozy spot on a sunny winter day when it's windy outside!
funky sunspace with home-grown post and beam!
observe large windows are shaded externally while a skylight overhead brings in natural light, and heat, but on the coast this is not a problem with seabreezes for cooling
roscoe southwall with tons of glazing, he uses thermal storage under the floor in the concrete slab.
Solid wing walls eliminate summer overheating from low angles that are hard to protect from the heat. In order to control solar influx in northern climates the east and west side need to be closed to the low sun that shines for many hours in morning and evening. Only vertical blinds or swing out shutters like the mediterranean standard, are windproof, rollshutters would be another option. Prominent is the big southfacing roofoverhang that is useful in late summer, but is not as important as the earlier mentioned for summercomfort, energy savings. The roof angles are just right right for allowing in wintersun and shading from summerheat. Chapel, Naramata Centre design: Isobel Chen, Naramata, BC
sunrooms in holland, correctly sporting roof vents and shade cloth, to control summer heat. Too bad the cloth impedes the vent, it needs a slot cut out around the vent at the eave so that air can flow through window opening!
again upper vents are operable, though not as effective here. It needs vents in the ceiling, those vents could extract excess heat via a finned tube coil to preheat the DHW. Inside curtains have little effect, besides privacy.; once the heat is inside the glass, it cannot escape, the heat has to be exhausted through air vents in the roof ideally, a free flow path straight up and out is best. And a heat exchanger coil in the outlet could capture useful heat to send to preheat the hotwater tank or store some warmth for fall house heating.
simple sunspace works well, easy to build, has vents in upper wall, but although safe from wind or rain issues, they do not allow for optimal airflow. The roof has skylights that could also open for easy flowing exhaust, while also allowing light inside.
angle of glass optimizes winter sun, reflecting from a snowcover would also increase efficiency in cold weather, while high summer sun reflects off the surface
upright glass is optimised for winter efficiency, it rejects more summer heat too,
this sunroom has openable windows and doors in west and hopefully also in east walls!
Don't forget to have roof vent to keep things from overheating in summer!
interesting folding shutters to keep out the heat!
gorgeous southfacade this, with good western sun protection, still allows winter afternoon sun from the southwest to warm up the inside.
bauhaus elegance faturing an overhang to provide shading over the windows, could use some blind on the east facing glass, where you see the tree shadow.
more bauhaus, a max breuer design with all lots of shading, but not over the window at far right, presumably facing east, it needs an awning or vertical exterior blind.
click on magnifying glass at top right
southfacing glass, from a rodale book that is reproduced with permission, via buildsolar.com
sunroom solutions are varied; can work in various ways, from a rodale book on passive solar
another elegant and well adapted passive solar design with generous overhangs and decks, those decks do cause some reflected sunlight to heat up the interior, but it is not hard to install an exterior curtain, reflective shade or pull up paper shade.
overhangs shade in the hot season, nd allow winter sun to fall inside. this was taken in sept, noon
giving more than you take! This is in Holland, one example of being close to energy autonomy, with al that silicon up front, must have cost a pretty penny in pv cells, batteries. Note the awning sunshade, the overhanging solar collectors, an ideal placement of pv cells in summer when the grid needs most power, we can build shading roofs over parkinglots downtown and sell the power locally!
easy to install like this with a machine
Borehole Thermal Energy Storage (BTES) * 144 – 150mm dia x 35m deep boreholes spaced 2.25m on centre. * Single 25mm PEX U-tube with 40mm grout tube. * High solids grout – 9% Blast Furnace Cement, 9% Portland cement, 32% fine silica sand, 50% water * 24 strings of 6 boreholes in series. * Divided into four circuits and distributed through four quadrants so that the loss of any single string or circuit has minimal impact on the heat capacity on the entire system * All circuits and strings start from centre of the BTES and move toward the outside to maximize stratification. A borehole thermal energy storage (BTES) system is an underground structure for storing large quantities of solar heat collected in summer for use later in winter. It is basically a large, underground heat exchanger. A BTES consists of an array of boreholes resembling standard drilled wells. After drilling, a plastic pipe with a “U” bend at the bottom
Okotoks, Alberta, just south of Calgary; seasonal flywheel system. every house has its personal DHW collector and water tank, all garages sport water collectors that feed a central heat store underground, see next image.
dutch solar subdivision proposal, several designs of rowhousing.
feeding the grid! This house is ready to pump juice into the grid, on an annual basis it is a net contributor thus reducing demand on the grid and reducing emissions. All we need now is a utility system that is willing to buy power from small producers, this is still a struggle in most of Canada.. It can also function without being tied to the grid, and store its own power into a battery system. the flat roof mount optimises efficiency when demand is highest, as in summer cooling mode, purrrfect match with local demand, that's how we should build all houses in a climate with large cooling loads! This is assuming cooling is run with refrigeration type of equipment and not simple cool water radiant ceiling panels, which are very low energy intensive and can also provide good dehumidification without risk of freezing up coils. And new technology for photovoltaic thin metal film and improved battery performance is around the corner, so building the right angle of roof is a good place to start.
new mexico, another energy self-reliant secure comfort home, for a considerable price... Note again lots of surfaces to mount collectors on here, why not move all those racks and mount flat on roofs that aim South. I like those overhanging roof ends, when they're low down they can provide lots of shading from the southwest, but this needs to be very sturdy in case of stormy weather.
industrial scale solar, the odeillo research concentrator in southern france. it reflects and concentrates solar heat on an absorber in the tower on right, absorber is not visible. Here immense heat is concentrated and can generate steam to drive power generation.
natural ventilation diagram that removes heat in summer and also illustrates natural light and diffusor shelves to scatter natural light over a wide area.
moveable photovoltaic wall tracks the sun, for power self sufficiency in this german prototype
detail of rotating panels on track
vertical solar collectors for high latitude northern locations, when an arctic front brings cold weather, skies tend to be clear and snow will reflect even more sunlight onto vertical southfacing absorbers
well sheltered south glass is shaded in summer, a grass roof makes it blend in.
a continuous insulation blanket reduces heat loss in this large greenhouse
large parabolic reflectors shine heat on pasteurisation vessel inside building on left.
Concentrator at work! Caution, hot and bright rays, for high temperature use only! Here, a big mirror heats barrel to pasteurize milk in india. needs a very accurate tracking mechanism in two planes, the frame shows guides for rollers to travel on in a semicircle to follow the elevation, for the horizontal plane i guess the long rod can be moved and the frame indicates all kinds of moving parts!
the smartest solar power system that does not rely on a delicate tracking mechanism, yet provides high efficiency and low cost.
building with mud bricks, low cost and low embodied energy. it is used all over the world, mexicans call it adobe, afghans build with it too!
pouring the slurry into moulds for drying
make your own power, elegantly, and have a cardio workout multitasked with the morning mail!
click the magnifying glass at right above the picture for info
schematic of my house i built in kootenays, winlaw.
winter skylights open when there is daylight, otherwise keep the heat in. summer exhaust mode also available
nice floorplan that keeps out the low sun of summer mornings and eves to keep cool, yet allow the wintersun inside from the south. the north wall is buffered by unheated zones to reduce heating load.
low wintersun shines deep inside and excess heat is stored in slab.
my thinking is to bury a large concrete tank deep down below house, and the ground around it, below the entire house, will stay warm all winter, without any need for furnace, blower, ducts, any noise or mechanical contraption!
an ad i ran in the nineties, yes Prayan is the name i used for a while, it is a sanskrit name i was given in poona, it means journey of the heart.
another ad i ran in Issues magazine long ago!
lots of windpower at Altamont pass!
excess summer heat is stored undergound, extracted in winter courtesy of John Hait, whose 1983 book on Passive Annual Heat storage, was a step forward, building on the underground housing movement, he incorporated thermal flywheel seasonal storage, a brilliant combination that works well on dry sites, or even over rocky ground!
thermal flywheel allows summer heat to be stored in soil, extracted in winter
madrid airport award winning design by a brit, the roof is made of fireproofed bamboo, as is the floor, with lots of natural lighting!
windpower at work on a monumental scale
offshore windpower now generates almost 50% of danish electricity
clean burning wood fired heat, ideal for converting beetle-killed pines into energy and heat!
a low rez version of a passive solarhouse i built with a tall glass window that brings wonderful natural light deep into the house in winter, yet the roof overhang excludes all summer sun at noon. the livingroom has windows in ceiling into the sunroom for more winterlight, during cold weather foamboard is folded down over the fiberglass sheet. mornings and afternoons can be a problem and need exterior shading to keep things comfy naturally.
low sun shading with roll down awning
very durable awning that folds up and away during wintder or cloudy days to allow natural light. More durable in sheetmetal metal instead of the usual canvas.
volkswagen 100lkm/l with a one litre diesel engine.
zero pollution transportation, soon with low impact printed PV cells!
real goods store, yukiah, northern california, strawbale round walls, tall glass, light reflector/diffusors, natural ventilation, quiet, naturally lit haven for a supplier to the low impact self reliant lifestyle.
refractions on the shortest day, the movements of the sun are easy to chart on the floor. I had a similar experience at home and marked the sun's angle back on the wall and floor.
natural light scatters everywhere as it falls on the horizontal surface below the upper glass, and it bounces up to the ceiling and back down into every corner of the store, with nice soft diffused light!
simulations with a heliodon, a light shines outside of the model, mimicking the arc of solar light.
Real Goods model with winter schematic
Real Goods model with Heliodon simulator
Real Goods store proposal, solar testing of a model with a heliodon, solar simulator.
A southfacade that appeals to me, with a pergola that can be covered with grapes or simply rolling out a canvas tarp!
massive scale industrial solar powerplant.
Dover House, by Norm Saunders, a milestone in elegant systems thinking and low cost integrated design!
detail of shurcliffe book on Dover house by Norm Saunders
concentrating thermal powerplant makes theair shimmer, i imagine moisture gets heated up into steam?
t5hermal mass to stabilise temps overnight, the big barrels did not absorb enough, they have thick walls, the plan was to hang a car radiator inside and circulate warm water through barrels...
Rolf Disch.de design
not very efficient but a low cost invisible solar application that makes sense for summer, when the sun is shining anyway, this is on Vancouver island, where the sun only shine reliably in summer anyway.
Clean looks and highly effective!
simple sunroom with a balcony inside that provides some summer shade, somewhere in holland.
very efficient heat exchanger tubes, in a simole plywood watertank with poly liner, foreground would presumably supply heat to the storage tank, the bigger ones in back will extract heat for use.
Arthur Erickson classic West Coast modern must get pretty hot in summer, cold in winter, but it looks splashy!
German Passiv Haus schematic
great eastern exposure for morning coffee, and even offers shade in the afternoon in summer!
Roman empire hot bath relic, this dome used to reflect sunlight down into the waterpool, putting passive solar to good use!
your basic breadbox water heater, very simple, pressurised is in the loop feeding your existing hot water heater, can be a recycled old hot water tank, if not rusty or full of crud....
simple low cost solar collector proposed by Nick Pine, the guru of all things energy efficient on the usenet, alt solar, alt energy, alt archi!
my house in winlaw, wonderful place on a sunny morning!
John Haitt built pathbreaking subfloor thermal storage for seasonal flywheel winter comfort.
Once upon a time, all over the Southern States, most houses had simple solar water heaters on the roof!
