The Drawing Board Studio

With temperatures well into the 100’s and rising, and living costs rising its hard to listen to the AC unit outside run all day long and especially all night long. Living in the desert brings several building practices to a higher standard, including building design practices.
Todays topic is Passive Solar Design. Basically passive solar design is the practice of building design that utilizes the layout of the structure, its materials and its orientation with the sun to create an environment that reduces the need for heating and cooling systems while maintaining a desirable level of comfort. While I do not profess to be an expert on this topic, I understand the principle and continue to study and implement certain design/layout specific issues into each custom home design. Many factors play a key role in designing a passive solar home. Here are a few that fall under my own criteria:

• Orienting the building so the kitchen, dining, and or great room capture the morning sun.
• Adequately-sizing windows to face the midday sun in the winter, and be shaded in the summer.
• Minimizing windows and placing garages on western facing side.
  
• Erecting correctly-sized overhangs, or shading elements (shrubbery, trees, trellises, fences, shutters, etc.)
• Using thermal mass to store excess solar energy during the winter day (which is then re-radiated during the night).
• Using and correctly placing operable windows throughout the home to allow proper ventilation and allow hot air to escape to the outside.

We use computer programs that allow us to determine the exact location of the home so we can study how the suns travel during each season will react with the layout of the home and then design accordingly. Lets plan your next home together.

Here are some ideas that intrigue me:

• The use of a Trombe wall
• Cooltowers (like those used at the Zion National Park visitor center.)
• Daylighting
• Geothermal energy
• Photovoltaics and Solar energy