The Solar House
Passive solar heating and passive
cooling--approaches known as natural conditioning--provide comfort throughout
the year by reducing, or eliminating, the need for fossil fuel and mechanical
heating and cooling systems. Yet while heat from sunlight and ventilation
from breezes is free for the taking, few modern architects or builders
really understand the principles involved.
Now Dan Chiras, author of the popular book The Natural House, brings
those principles up to date for a new generation of solar enthusiasts.
The techniques required to heat and cool a building passively have been
used for thousands of years. Early societies such as the Native American
Anasazis and the ancient Greeks perfected designs that effectively exploited
these natural processes. The Greeks considered anyone who didn't use
passive solar to heat a home to be a barbarian!
In the United States, passive solar architecture experienced a major
resurgence of interest in the 1970s in response to crippling oil embargoes.
With grand enthusiasm but with scant knowledge (and sometimes little
common sense), architects and builders created a wide variety of solar
homes. Some worked pretty well, but looked more like laboratories than
houses. Others performed poorly, overheating in the summer because of
excessive or misplaced windows and skylights, and growing chilly in
the colder months because of insufficient thermal mass and insulation
and poor siting.
In The Solar House, Dan Chiras sets the record straight on the vast
potential for passive heating and cooling. Acknowledging the good intentions
of misguided solar designers in the past, he highlights certain egregious--and
entirely avoidable--errors. More importantly, Chiras explains in methodical
detail how today's home builders can succeed with solar designs.
Now that energy efficiency measures including higher levels of insulation
and multi-layered glazing have become standard, it is easier than ever
before to create a comfortable and affordable passive solar house that
will provide year-round comfort in any climate.
Moreover, since modern building materials and airtight construction
methods sometimes result in air-quality and even toxicity problems,
Chiras explains state-of-the-art ventilation and filtering techniques
that complement the modern solar design and construction. Chiras also
explains the new diagnostic aids available in printed worksheet or software
formats, allowing readers to generate their own design schemes.
Paper
:: 8 x 10 :: 288 pages
b & w photos and illustrations :: index :: appendix :: resource
section
ISBN 1-931498-12-1 :: $29.95
Solar House Resource Guide
