Green Building
Top Ideabooks
Architect's Toolbox: Solar-Powered Design
See how your home's design can take advantage of the sun's natural energy all year
Houzz Contributor. My name is Bud Dietrich and I am an architect located in the Tampa Bay area of Florida. I am licensed to practice architecture in Illinois, Florida, New Jersey & Wisconsin and I am a certificate holder from the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB). Since 1996 I have worked from my home office and provide full architectural services exclusively to the single family residential market. My passion is to transform my clients' houses into their homes. I strive to have the "new" home accommodate my clients' lives without fighting them at every junction. I look to add curb appeal to encourage a beautiful streetscape. And I design any addition to look and feel like it has always been there.
Our projects have won numerous design awards as well as having...
Houzz Contributor. My name is Bud Dietrich and I am an architect located... More »
In a recent ideabook we identified a smartly designed home as one that is respectful of the planet. In another story, we presented the Hudson Passive Project, a home that relies almost completely on the sun for its heating and cooling. Here, I'll use a few examples to get into a little more detail on how to design a home to take advantage of the sun's power.
More: High Design With Solar Panels
More: High Design With Solar Panels
| |
| This home is by architect Nathan Kipnis, who has spent the last several decades designing homes that rely on the sun for heating and other power needs. In this home, Nate orients the long face on an east/west axis to make sure that the home gets a lot of sun throughout the day. The design incorporates a deep overhang and pergola to block the sunlight from entering the home in summer, when the sun is higher in the sky. |
This photo is shows how the interior appears on March 21 and Sept. 21 each year. Light from the summer sun enters only the first few feet of the home. It reinforces the architecture by helping to define the primary circulation space and hallway.
This photo is of the home's interior on Dec. 21. In winter, when the sun is lower in the sky, sunlight reaches deep inside to help illuminate and warm the interior.
| |
| The only thing required to achieve a home powered by the sun is some smart design. For another project, architect Nate Kipnis identifies the roof angles that will be required during the winter ... |
| |
| ... and in summer to optimize harnessing sunlight. |
| |
| The finished home is quite traditional in appearance, belying the fact that the home is on the cutting edge of technology and design. |
| |
| Another home on the cutting edge of sustainability and green design also has very traditional architecture. This home includes features such as a passive cooling system (proper shading and the ability to take advantage of natural air movement) and Energy Star compliance (third-party-certified to use 15 percent less energy than allowed by the building and energy code). |
What I especially like about this home is that it is smartly designed to be a good neighbor and engage the world around it.
See more of this house
See more of this house
| |
| Though we sometimes think a home on the cutting edge of design and technology will look like something from the Jetsons, it certainly doesn't have to. This home offers more proof that an energy-efficient and sustainable home can be built in any style and in any location. They just need to be smartly designed to suit their context and their owner's preferences. This home's traditional design fits seamlessly within its context, while incorporating straw-bale construction (a great insulator and sustainable system), passive cooling and more. |
| |
| Sometimes it doesn't make economic sense to install a solar array such as photovoltaic cells when a home is first built. But establishing an optimal roof angle at the onset makes adding these features that much easier later on, when the technology improves and the costs come down. More: 10 Elements of the Just-Right House Houzz Tour: Innovate Home, Heated and Cooled by Design High Design With Solar Panels |
Ideabook updated on Oct. 27, 2011.
What are you working on?
News From Our Partners
Latest Ideabooks
People found the photos in this ideabook after searching for:
View over a million photos:
basements · bedrooms · dining rooms · entries · family rooms · garage and sheds · halls · home offices · landscapes · laundry rooms · powder rooms · wine cellars and more.
My issue on the passive solar is NOT knowing how far out to build an overhang for efficient shade in the summer and letting the light into the home in the winter. So far most "intructions" I've found have been written in terms for builders and 'math geniuses' rather than homeowners who hated algebra in school. *shrugs* Not everyone mixes their "2's and y's" very well. Say it has to be 2.89 feet exactly with a slide of no more than 3/16s, and I can do that. Those are real hard numbers. We are in the design stage of a home addition which will include an attached greenhouse, living room sunroom addition, and a gameroom which will have a 12ft ceiling peak and southern facing glass. It would be great if someone knew of a site where you could calculate the needed reach and angles for efficient passive solar according to latitude and longitude.
There are a number of sites that offer a calculator for determining sun angles and optimal positioning of collectors. Just google "sun angle calculator" or something similar. But I think yours is more of an architectural question. Typically, my preference is to build a 3D model of the project in Sketchup ( http://sketchup.google.com/intl/en/ ) and position the model in Google Earth to study how the sun moves across the project at various times of day and night and throughout the year. I can then adjust the architectural elements to to get the amount of sun and shade I want. A very early study of the sun across the south face of a project is shown in the image.
Hope this helps and good luck.
All the math you need is your latitude and longitude and Google Maps will get that for you.
I think we're good to go!!