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The Passive Solar House
The Complete Guide to Heating and Cooling Your Home
Revised and Expanded Edition
James Kachadorian
240 pages
Publisher:
Chelsea Green Publishing Company, USA
For the past 10 years The Passive Solar House has offered proven techniques for building homes that heat and cool themselves, using readily available materials and methods familiar to all building contractors and many do-it-yourself homeowners.
True to this innovative, straightforward approach, the new edition of this best-selling guide includes CSOL passive solar design software, making it easier than ever to heat your home with the power of the sun. Since The Passive Solar House was first published, passive solar construction expert James Kachadorian has perfected user-friendly, PC-compatible software to supplement the design process explained in the book by allowing homeowners/designers to enter the specifications of their design and see how changing a variable will affect its energy efficiency.
This is the building book for a world of climbing energy costs. Applicable to diverse regions, climates, budgets, and styles of architecture, Kachadorian’s techniques translate the essentials of timeless solar design into practical wisdom for today’s solar builders. Profiles of successful passive solar design, construction, and retrofit projects from readers of the first edition provide inspiration to first-time homebuilders and renovators alike.
Preface
Let Nature Heat Your Home
The Passive Solar Concept
The Solar Slab and Basic Solar Design
Insulation, Venting, and Fresh Air
Basic Layouts and Floor Plans
How to Do the Solar Design Calculations
The Foundation Plan, and Backup Heating and Cooling
A Sidehill Variation, and Solar Design Worksheets
Sunspaces and Special Design Considerations
Interior Design for Year-Round Comfort
Three Projects
Using the CSOL Computer Program
Appendix 1. Solar Design Worksheets
Appendix 2. Solar Intensity and Solar Heat Gain Factors for 16 to 64 Degrees North Latitude
Appendix 3. Thermal Properties of Typical Building and Insulating Materials (Design Values)
Appendix 4. North Latitude, Elevation, and Outside Winter Design Temperatures for Selected Cities in the US and Canada
Appendix 5. Average Monthly and Yearly Degree Days for Cities in the US and Canada
Appendix 6. Mean Percentage of Possible Sunshine for Selected Cities in the US and Canada
Appendix 7. Isogonic Chart (Magnetic Declination)
Index
James Kachadorian is a civil engineer with degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He is the founder of Green Mountain Homes, which gained US recognition as the first provider of over 300 innovative, kit solar homes. He has lived in his own passive solar home in Woodstock, Vermont for over 25 years.
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