THE PASSIVE SOLAR HOME

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The Dickensons use a four-inch concrete slab floor and eight-inch concrete block thermal storage walls to store the heat in their home. The second law of thermodynamics does the rest, forcing that energy to radiate from warmer objects to cooler during the frigid winter nights.

Distribution

Our advice for distribution is keep it simple. Smart energy-efficient solar construction means that you will not need complicated and expensive heat transfer systems, such as double envelopes, rock boxes, or earth tube cooling to move air. Natural convection principles will move hot air upwards and into cooler spaces without being helped.

Passive solar strategies: Clockwise from top left: Direct gain, combination of direct gain and thermal storage material in wall, sunspace (small room or hallway), direct gain windows heating thermal storage wall exclusively.

Retention

The principles listed above will mean precious little if a home lacks the ability to retain absorbed and stored heat in its envelope (walls, floors, and ceilings). Everything from Styrofoam to strawbales has been used to enclose a building's exterior, and your choice will depend upon both personal preferences and climate conditions. Whatever the decision may be, be certain that your walls have an insulating factor of approximately R-30; your ceilings R-50. These figures exceed the requirements of most North American building codes, but are a tremendously important investment. Jeff and Priscilla built their home of stress-skin panels. This pre fabricated 4' x 8' panel building system is both draft-resist-ant and superinsulated. It is a factory-made sandwich of oriented stranboard (similar to plywood) and CFC (chlorofluorocarbon)-free Styrofoam. This envelope provides a wall R-factor of 24 and a ceiling factor of 44.

Air leakage was reduced throughout the home by sealing first the more obvious sites of air leakage such as door and window frames, but then was extended to sill plates, rim joists, pipes, wire ducts, and recessed lights. Expanding foam, caulk, weather- stripping gaskets, and drywall were all conscientiously used to prevent drafts.

The Last Details

Jeff and Priscilla's home was also designed to minimize its consumption of electricity as well as its production of waste. To that end it employs compact fluorescent lighting, low-flow plumbing fixtures, and is preplumbed for a grey water system to utilize household waste water for irrigation of landscape. Last, wherever possible, recycled building materials were used.

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