Solar Architecture in Cool Climates

Climate adaptive building shells: State-of-the-art and future challenges

“…Such devices are used for decentralized generation and supply of energy from renewables, or for conversion of resources at higher overall efficiencies [4]. The term passive on the other hand refers to buildings where the design of construction and shape of the building itself, as opposed to its servicing, play major roles in capturing, storing and distributing wind and solar energy, normally with the aim of displacing fossil fuels for space conditioning and lighting [5][6][7].…”

Rocks, Clays, Water, and Salts: Highly Durable, Infinitely Rechargeable, Eminently Controllable Thermal Batteries for Buildings

“…Simply by maintaining a warmer environment than the outdoors, a passively-heated sunspace diminishes the temperature difference across its common wall(s) and reduces heat loss from those walls accordingly. Sunspaces often enclose entry doors, as well, acting as vestibules to reduce heat loss from conditioned interior space, and they can provide tempered ventilation air to the interior [120,121]. For these purposes, sunspace temperatures are most profitably kept warmest when the temperature difference across the common wall is greatest.…”

Analysis of the passive design and solar collection techniques of the houses in the 2009 U.S. Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon competition

“…The direct-gain approach is used when a house has a large amount of south facing windows. These windows are placed deliberately to allow the sun to directly heat the living space [3]. When solar energy enters a window and strikes a surface, it is mostly converted to heat energy.…”

“…The indirect-gain design strategy focuses on using the sun to heat an unconditioned space that is adjacent to the living space [3]. The advantage of the indirect-gain approach is that direct-gain spaces usually have large temperature swings and can even become uncomfortably warm in the winter.…”

“…An attached sunspace typically shares only one common wall with the living space with the three remaining walls being exposed walls. See Figure 2 below for examples of both types of sunspace [3].…”