Passive solar homes - The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy

91 new award-winning, energy-conserving single-family homes with specific suggestions for design & construction

Builders, contractors, architects and energy-conscious home builders who want to take advantage of the sun’s free heating power will find Passive Solar Homes an indispensable reference tool.

An easy-to-understand explanation of passive solar energy, the various functions passive solar systems can perform, and the types of systems that are most practical can all be found in this heavily illustrated volume. Featuring 91 award-winning passive solar homes from all parts of the United States, Passive Solar Homes tells you all you need to know to take advantage of the sun’s power at minimum cost:

• How to design a home suitable to the climatic conditions of your area

• How to choose and prepare the building site, taking into consideration such factors as topography, soil, drainage, vegetation, and most important, “solar access”

• How to plan, orient, and insulate your home for maximum energy conservation

• Detailed specifications for building the five major components of any passive solar system — collector, absorber, storage, distribution, and control

Also included are an index, bibliography, glossary of terms, charts and graphs and an introduction by Martin McPhillips, editor of The Solar Age Resource Book.

Recognizing the advantages of passive solar energy, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has encouraged Americans to incorporate passive solar heating and cooling in the building of new homes, by holding competitions for the most inventive and efficient architectural designs of solar homes. The winners of the most recent of these competitions—Cycle 5 of the Residential Solar Heating and Cooling Demonstration Program—are the 91 single-family energy-conserving passive solar homes featured in this unique volume.

Passive Solar Homes is chock-full of ideas you can incorporate in the design of your new home (or in the renovation of your old home) to take maximum advantage of the sun’s free heating power. Each of these ideas relies on simple cost-saving technology rather than on costly untested devices. The narrative accompanying each design includes: designer data; builder’s name; construction costs; degree days; heated area; auxiliary heat; passive heat systems; plus a narrative description of the home and its passive system. Simple directions on calculating the savings from use of passive solar for any house in any climate is also included.

You’ll discover that the initial cost of renovating a home or building a new home incorporating simple passive solar technology is far less than you might have thought. Moreover, the sun doesn’t send you a bill every month.