Design Elements For Residential Buildings in Temperate Climates
- Placement of room-types, internal doors & walls, & equipment in the house.
- Orienting the building to face the equator (or a few degrees to the East to capture the morning sun)
- Extending the building dimension along the east/west axis
- Adequately sizing windows to face the midday sun in the winter, and be shaded in the summer.
- Minimising windows on other sides, especially western windows
- Erecting correctly sized, latitude-specific roof overhangs, or shading elements (shrubbery, trees, trellises, fences, shutters, etc.)
- Using the appropriate amount and type of insulation including radiant barriers and bulk insulation to minimise seasonal excessive heat gain or loss
- Using thermal mass to store excess solar energy during the winter day (which is then re-radiated during the night)
The precise amount of equator-facing glass and thermal mass should be based on careful consideration of latitude, altitude, climatic conditions, and heating/cooling degree day requirements.
Factors that can degrade thermal performance:
- Deviation from ideal orientation and north/south/east/west aspect ratio
- Excessive glass area ('over-glazing') resulting in overheating (also resulting in glare and fading of soft furnishings) and heat loss when ambient air temperatures fall
- Installing glazing where solar gain during the day and thermal losses during the night cannot be controlled easily e.g. West-facing, angled glazing, skylights
- Thermal losses through non-insulated or unprotected glazing
- Lack of adequate shading during seasonal periods of high solar gain (especially on the West wall)
- Incorrect application of thermal mass to modulate daily temperature variations
- Open staircases leading to unequal distribution of warm air between upper and lower floors as warm air rises
- High building surface area to volume - Too many corners
- Inadequate weatherization leading to high air infiltration
- Lack of, or incorrectly installed, radiant barriers during the hot season. (See also cool roof and green roof)
- Insulation materials that are not matched to the main mode of heat transfer (e.g. undesirable convective/conductive/radiant heat transfer)
Read more about this topic: Passive Solar Building Design
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