The following techniques use passive solar strategies to provide cooling:
Passive solar cooling can reduce or even eliminate the need for air conditioning in homes. At its simplest, passive cooling includes overhangs for south-facing windows, few windows on the west, shade trees, thermal mass and cross ventilation. Some of the same strategies that help to heat a home in the winter also cool it in the summer. For example, with a well-designed overhang, the south-facing windows that admit the low-angled rays of the winter sun are shaded from the high-angled summer sun. Thermal mass, which stores heat in the winter to release in the evening, works in reverse in the summer. The mass cools down in the evening and retains that coolness the next day, moderating the effects of high daytime temperatures.
Graphic courtesy of North Carolina Solar Center.
Passive solar design works by utilizing overhangs to shade a house during the heat of the summer and allow sunlight to penetrate the interior of the house during the winter.
Passive solar design utilizes energy efficiency
Energy efficiency minimizes the need for heating, cooling and electricity, solar or otherwise. Designers of solar homes use insulation levels that are higher than those found in typical construction and energy efficiency appliances and lighting.
Windows are up to twice as resistant to heat loss as those used in conventional construction. Air infiltration is also reduced by carefully sealing and caulking around window and door openings and under sill plates.
Adapted from "Consumer Guide to Solar Energy," K. Sheinkopf and S. Sklar, Bonus Books, Inc. and "Buildings for a Sustainable America Case Studies," Burke Miller Thayer, American Solar Energy Society.nesea.org
