How to Build a Passive Solar Home with EcoHome, the Green Building Resource
This is the first in a series of videos on passive solar home construction, we begin with passive solar design basics, orienting the future house on the site to take full advantage of the free heat available from the sun while keeping it cool with natural shading in the summer.
Our recommendations to everyone building a home is for the same, aim for energy efficiency, durability, safe indoor air quality and responsible material choices etc. I would point you to our guide pages to search by category or keyword -
Green building guide for high performance construction techniques
On top of that, we would suggest you take extra time on resilient home design. Since you won’t be there a lot of the time, try to foresee any issues your home may face and add design features to deal with them passively.
Here is a short list of measures you might want to consider that will help protect your home while you are away for long periods, and we have included as many relevant links as we can think of:
Choose a suitable lot to build a homewith consideration put towards soil quality, water tables, emergency service access, and close enough to a community so you could have someone on call that can attend to your home regularly.
Super-insulated homes such as passive house, anddesigning a home for passive solar heat collectionwill keep your energy costs at a minimum and also help it stay warm in the event of power failures.
When you suggest a basement, my first thought would be to avoid that and stay above grade. Building a basement is typically a more expensive way to build, and even if you take measures to protect it against flooding, you will still be at risk.A slab on grade house on high groundwillsafeguard your home against extreme weather events in a changing climate.
If you do choose to go with a basement, please see our guide todurable and healthy basement construction, and take extra durability measures such as installing a sump pump, possibly a second one depending on water tables, and even a battery backup.
Choose durable roofing materialsto protect against high winds, such as a professionally installed and well-fastened metal roof, or aliving green roof. Asphalt shingles are the least durable and are susceptible to damage from wind and hail.
Smart homes and home monitoring with devices– control the systems of your home remotely, and monitor for intruders, temperature swings, andget smart phone notices for leaks from basements and or appliances.
We make no secret of the fact thatwe prefer slab on grade homes over basements, and particularly in your situation. Aside from what we mention above, it’s great to have a retirement home on a single level so you can avoid the need to negotiate stairs if you have mobility issues in the future. That said, we also have information ondownsizing and home design for seniors, that you may want to consider now for when your travelling days end.
And to address the issue of cost – yes, you will put more money into a durable and efficient home, but they pay for themselves in the long run. As you plan to stay in this for the long term, we truly believe that the added investment for a greener home will pay off. The best way to keep costs down is to keep the size down and the design simple, so take time to consider how big a home you really need.
Passive heating and cooling is a great way to save energy in a home, but if you mean what I think you mean by ‘earth tubes’, I would not be adding that to the design.So we are on the same page – ‘Earth tubes’ often refers to the *ventilation* system of an Earthship. Is that what you are referring to? If so, all we would say to that is, just don’t. See this page onwhy Earthships don’t work in cold climates向下滚动到通风部分。任何被认为是“生态友好型”的现代住宅，甚至只是节能，都需要热回收通风。
If, on the other hand, you are talking about a ground loop to preheat or pre-cool incoming air to ventilation systems, that’s a different matter altogether. For the moment though and for tips on how to build passive solar, I would start here –How to build a passive solar home DIY video series. That covers everything from southern orientation, shading, insulation, how to make a house airtight etc.
I will run with the assumption that your house is not yet built otherwise you would already have a heating solution, is that correct? If not let me know.
From the beginning, your best bet is to have a very good thermal envelope to reduce the heat load and, if possible, orient the house forpassive solar heating. Both of those design priorities will reduce the size of the heating system you require as well as the amount of energy it will consume during operation.
The cheapest way to set yourself up would be a wood stove, but they are not the most efficient system, and home temperatures tend to vary more when wood is the primary heat source. It also requires that you be there to continually feed the fire. They’re fun to sit around and excellent to have in an emergency but they are a bit of a hassle. I speak from experience here, I like my wood stove but it’s a lot of work, so I use my electric heat as much as possible.
如果您的平板还没有决定，请尽快与我们联系，因为我们将在大约3周后(2018年9月)开始建造我们的下一个演示屋，该演示屋将在平板地板上安装太阳能加热空气板。太阳能空气加热板比太阳能水加热板麻烦和风险小得多，比光伏太阳能板便宜得多。我们希望这是一种更实惠的离网加热解决方案，因为它只需要一个小型光伏面板来运行风扇，然后传递热量。
We already have the answers you’re looking for no matter what stage of design or construction you’re at, here are the pages that will help; and if they don’t, please don’t hesitate to drop us another question.
What do you think about the argument that a) IF the average annual temperature is below optimum for humans and b) IF you put enough thermal mass of sufficient conductivity into the building and isolate it from the outside enough, then there is no such thing as too much solar gain - even in mid-summer?
I'd prefer to minimise my use of cement and use tubular earthbag construction for most of it instead. Earthbag has been tested by international NGOs for rebuilding in earthquake and hurricane hit areas, and it proved very structurally stable, has almost as much specific heat capacity and density as concrete, but it's very cheap and quick and easy to build with. And it looks nice with lime plaster on. They recommend ground and external walls insulation but only around the perimeter.
Enough thermal mass = I'm thinking of earthbag (aka. super-adobe) for most of it, with a wall of water tanks stacked 4 high in a timber frame, behind rebar mesh covered with fruit vines on the south side, granite cobblestone or brick paths, and use car radiators used in the apex of the dome to transfer heat into the bottom of the water tanks more efficiently, and underground heat exchange water pipes under the soil in the growing areas.
The two places where I'm thinking to do it - one has a warm climate, average 18C, coastal with 500mm precipitation per year, so there potentially excess heat is more of an issue, and the other location I'm thinking about has average annual temperature 10C, 680mm precipitation.
I plan to make a thermal mass rocket stove, with some modifications I got from wood kilns designed for firing porcelain (very high temperatures), including pre-heated air and a downdraft firebox. So I don't mind if the passive solar gain is not enough by itself. In the colder place where I'm planning to build, firewood is cheap. And I'd try to get recycled wood pellets too and design my stove for both.
I used to live in a house with a solar thermal system, 600l thermal store tank, and quite often in summer it'd get to nearly 95C throughout the tank, so to avoid it boiling or risking damage to the collector the next day by too much pressure in the pipes if the heat exchange circuit was not pumping, I'd release some heat by having a huge hot bath in the evening. Not really a hardship :) I can think of many more good uses for spare hot water. I think it's better to release some excess heat via water outside (water is plentiful in the cooler location I'm mainly thinking of) than to limit solar gain all year and then have to make an expensively super insulated and MHRV box.
Hi Kester, that's an interesting theory you have. We removed the links you posted as we don't keep links in comments sections, but one of the ones you posted was from an Earthship. There is a lot of apeal to them as it is a great looking story, but they do have drawbacks. In case you are getting a lot of your inspiration from them I would suggest a look at this page aboutwhy Earthships don't work in cold climatesas it explains some of the downsides and challenges that you may not be getting from the Earthship corporate websites or blog pages from enthusiasts. There is a lot in there about thermodynamics, and it explains some of the limits of thermal mass in regulating temperatures on a 24 hour cycle.
Here are a few other pages on building science related to the topics you are covering so have a look and let us know what you think-