Passive solar heating or cooling is the cheapest way to keep your home comfortable, shutting out the summer sun and letting in the winter sun, especially when designed as part of a new build or major renovation.
Heat and cool your home with passive air
Image from Yourhome
How is it achieved?
While passive heating is not easy to achieve once a house is built, it can be when planned as part of a new build or a major renovation.
The government’s guide to energy efficient building, Yourhome.gov.au states, “Orientation for passive heating is about using the sun as a source of free home heating by letting winter sun in and keeping unwanted summer sun out — desirable in the majority of Australian homes. It can be done with relative ease on northern elevations by using horizontal shading devices to exclude high angle summer sun and admit low angle winter sun.”
Image from Yourhome
The Yourhome website has a fantastic source for information regarding best orientation for passive heating and cooling, using ‘solar access’ or the amount of useful sunshine penetrating your home.
Below is a great example of how to keep a home cooler in the summer with open windows and an eave to shade from the sun:
Image from Yourhome
Houses with poor orientation can create the opposite effect; heating a house in the summer and cooling it in the winter, which not only decreases your home’s energy efficiency but actually works against it, meaning you’ll need to use more energy for heating or cooling than you otherwise would.
Here’s some handy tips when considering your next home purchase, or design to maximise solar access:
- Grow plants and trees (such as a Tulipwood) that allow winter sun and provide summer shade
- Place vegetation, such as trees in locations around the home that encourage winds to pass through the house, instead of around
- Place daytime living areas in north-facing locations to maximise solar access
- Place non-living rooms (utility rooms, laundries and garages) in south-facing or west-facing locations as being comfortable in these rooms is less important.
