Solar - DIY Heating with Passive Solar Energy
You’ve grown tired of paying monstrous electric bills and have decided to go solar. Let’s discuss DIY heating with passive solar system installation.
Solar - DIY Passive Solar Installation
A passive solar energy system is one in which the design does not include pumps and circulation methods for heat and energy in the home. Instead, the home is designed with passive solar in mind or home improvement is undertaken to create natural heating and lighting in the home. Essentially, you are harking back to ancient design methods used to heat structures prior to the use of electricity.
The first rule of passive solar is the south facing side of the structure is the critical component. These surfaces will receive the most sunlight if you are living in the northern hemisphere. That being said, you need to determine if your property is configured to take advantage of the passive solar opportunity. Trees and other structures that shade the southern surfaces will make your passive solar efforts a waste of time. You are going to have to deal with them, even the trees that have been there for a long time. Once you’ve dealt with items blocking the sun, you’re ready to consider your passive solar strategy.
The simplest way to create DIY heating with passive solar is to focus on windows. The south side of the home should have extensive and large windows to take full advantage of the power of the sun. To maximize the impact of the windows, you can add materials to the flooring below the windows which absorb heat and then will radiate it after the sun has gone down. This type of DIY heating with passive solar is known as “direct gain.” It isn’t particularly difficult to undertake, but has one weakness. Windows create heat during the day, but tend to be terrible insulators at night. While heat loss will be significant, it is still a simple DIY heating strategy.
If you are looking for something a bit more powerful in passive solar heating, you need to consider making some significant tweaks to the south side of the structure. Sunspaces and trombe walls may be what you are looking for in passive solar heating.
A sunspace is much like a greenhouse and is built on the south side of a structure. As sunlight passes through glass or other glazing, it warms the sunspace. Proper ventilation allows the heat to circulate into the building. Importantly, you are not looking for a sun room, which is an add on to a home for loafing and relaxing. A proper sunspace will look very similar to a greenhouse and will get very hot. You really don’t want to be in one, although there is a certain sauna effect.
A typical Trombe wall consists of an 8- to 16-inch-thick masonry wall coated with a dark, heat-absorbing material and faced with a single or double layer of glass. The glass is placed from ¾ inch to 2 inches from the masonry wall to create a small airspace. Heat from sunlight passing through the glass is absorbed by the dark surface, stored in the wall, and conducted slowly inward through the masonry. You can read more about passive solar energy here.
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