A Passive Solar House

The house works!

There are interesting features in a passive solar house. Many can be seen from the exterior. For instance, the house is precisely placed to face solar south (not magnetic south). This allows the window wall, which you can see, to collect light (heat) energy during the winter. The overhang of the roof is designed to provide shade when the sun is high on the horizon in the summer sky, but it does not interfere with the sun's rays when the sun is low on the horizon in the winter. This is a single story house, the windows you see along the top are the clerestory. They allow sunlight into the center of the house all year. When they are opened, they permit the hottest air in the house to escape in the summer. They are usually closed in the winter, but at times the house collects sufficient heat on a sunny day to warrant releasing some - even when it is below freezing outside. Collection of the sun's energy requires only that the sun shine, clouds do not severely interfere. All the windows are made of a selective glass. It permits those wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum which we call visible light to pass freely, but it does not permit infra red (heat) to pass. This helps keep heat in in the winter and out in the summer. Looking through this glass gives one the same impression of color as looking through ordinary window glass - no tints, no shading.

The driveway presents an interesting challenge, especially in the winter. Several students dubbed it "the driveway from hell". - Fits....

Heating is an interesting challenge. If one wishes to prove one's dedication to the use of alternatives to fossil fuels, one could live in the house without employing a "furnace". BUT, in the winter the temperature would fluctuate rather severely - being colder at night than is desirable (probably around 55 degrees Fahrenheit). While not unlivable, it is not pleasant. To minimize this fluctuation, as much dense material (stone, cement, brick) as is practical has been incorporated into the structure of the house - interior brick/cement walls, and ceramic/cement floors, AND a large central cement and brick housing (about 4 x 10 x 15 ft inside, and another 8 ft, or so, outside) for the chimneys. There are three - caste iron stove, fireplace, furnace. You can see it emerge from the roof as a "chimney". This central pillar also collects the sun's energy when light passes through the window wall in the winter. Energy stored in the structure of the house is released slowly through the night. This "storage" also helps to ameliorate the temperatures on very hot summer days. Have you ever noted the temperature difference in your cellar - even on a 95 degree day? Conserving heat is important. The insulation in 6 inch walls and in ceilings is maximized. Tyvec outside the insulation keeps the wind at bay. A plastic moisture barrier inside the insulation helps it to breathe and keep from packing with condensation. We tried using only a caste iron stove for one winter. It worked, but a great deal of physical effort is involved in maintaining the proper ash bed in such a stove. Ask anyone who has employed one. It is warm and appealing, and fun for a time, but at 6:00 a.m. shaking down the ash bed looses its novelty rather quickly. In a year we seem to use about $400 to heat and about $400 to heat hot water - assuming approximately $1/gallon for oil. Our environmental halos are tarnished, however, since we use electricity to air condition when the heat and humidity of New Jersey's summers becomes sufficiently miserable. When time permits, a side view of the structure will be added to this page. The control of air flow in a solar house is critical to its success. This can be best understood only with diagrams. Unlike conventional heating, warm air is released near the floor and captured near the ceiling (this takes advantage of the inevitable rising of hot air). It is then pushed down through the furnace to be heated IF needed, and then to be recirculated. Programmable thermostats have proven their worth, as have multiple thermostats controlling when the clerestory air is collected and when it is not.

You are welcome to ask questions about living in a passive solar house. Not too many environmental science professors have had the opportunity, and it warrants telling. We designed the house (from scratch! - blank paper). Mr. Keating had taken courses in solar energy, I had attended the Cornell Univ. College of Architecture (long enough to learn only the rudiments of the profession). Prof. Makofski, of Ramapo State College looked over the plans to assure that critical structural components were included. A licensed architect, Herbert Vollman, from Clinton, N.J. checked them thoroughly to assure structural integrity.

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