Passive Solar Heating System

A well designed passive solar home first reduces heating and cooling loads through energy efficiency strategies and then meets those reduced loads in whole or part with solar energy.

Passive solar heating system.

Passive solar design takes advantage of a building s site climate and materials to minimize energy use. The key to designing a passive solar building is. Typically the aperture s should face within 30 of true south and should not be shaded by other buildings or trees from 9 a m. In addition the heat produced by the sun causes air movement that can be predictable in designed spaces.

In passive solar building design windows walls and floors are made to collect store reflect and distribute solar energy in the form of heat in the winter and reject solar heat in the summer. Because of the small heating loads of modern homes it is very important to avoid oversizing south facing. Passive solar heating is using the sun s rays to heat a living space by exposing the area to sunlight. Each day during the heating season.

Instead they take advantage of natural heat flow to distribute warmth. In a passive solar heating system the aperture collector is a large glass window area through which sunlight enters the building. When sunlight strikes a building the building materials can reflect transmit or absorb the solar radiation. These basic responses to solar heat lead to design.

An example of a passive system for space heating is a sunspace or solar greenhouse. Passive systems do not use mechanical devices such as fans blowers or pumps to distribute solar heat from a collector.