{ Passive Solar Solutions for My Renovation } Green Living

Passive Solar Design is a term used to describe how a home can be designed to take advantage of the sun’s path.

Unfortunately, little attention has been paid to this simple energy saving detail in recent years. Homes and subdivisions have been designed with resale value being the main focus and little effort has gone into situating roads and homes so that the sun can play it’s helpful role. There was a time when people paid great attention to Passive Solar Design…

My home was built in the 1940’s. My Grandmother loaned me a book on home design circa 1948 and it features a home very much like my own. In this book, there is one entire chapter dedicated to the importance of building a home so that it takes advantage of the sun’s path. This book even suggests the best place to build a “drying yard” for laundry. Ahhh… the good ol’ days.

The very first owners of our litte home may have owned this book, as our home is true South facing. I didn’t even notice this when we first bought it, but during the first winter we lived there I fell in love with the sunshine that poured in our living room window each morning. I felt a lot like a cat – curled up in the sunshine dozing off.

My little vintage house may be south facing to take advantage of the winter sunshine, but this also creates problems during the hot season…

In the summer months, both the front and back of the house get really warm. Most of the main windows in our home are South and West facing. This means we get sunshine spilling through our home right up until sunset during the summer.

To remedy this, I have come up with a simple Passive Solar Design plan for our renovation:

1. Install an arbour along our front living room window. Plant a eco-friendly vine (not on the noxious weed list…) next to the arbour that will climb. It will loose it’s leaves in the winter to allow for maximum sunlight. In the summer, the full foliage should provide good shade for our window from the high, hot sun.

2. At the back of the house (where our future addition will go) I want to install “Low-E” windows. These windows are designed to limit the amount of heat that is transmitted through the glass. They are more expensive, but they are extremely effective.

In my humble opinion, it is not a wise idea to install these new Low-E windows around the entire house because a home can actually gain heat from the low winter sun on the side that faces South.  However, it IS wise to install these windows on the west side of the home, as that side usually gets the very hot sun hitting it during the long summer afternoons and in the winter the sun is barely up long enough to provide that side of the house with any significant warmth.

 If you need some extra help in planning a renovation with Passive Solar Design elements, I would suggest hiring local home and renovation designer Jennifer Charles. She has a genuine interest in green renovating and a lot of valuable experience. When you’re ready to purchase windows, Van Isle Windows can help you select the right ones. Most importantly, do your own research – I found that my doing my own research I began to feel quite passionate about the idea of Passive Solar Design, and fell more in love with my home too.