Design Tools
Traditionally a heliodon was used to simulate the altitude and azimuth of the sun shining on a model building at any time of any day of the year. In modern times, computer programs can model this phenomenon and integrate local climate data (including site impacts such as overshadowing and physical obstructions) to predict the solar gain potential for a particular building design over the course of a year. GPS-based smartphone applications can now do this inexpensively on a hand held device. These tools provide the passive solar designer the ability to evaluate local conditions, design elements and orientation prior to construction. Energy performance optimization normally requires an iterative-refinement design-and-evaluate process. There is no such thing as a "one-size-fits-all" universal passive solar building design that would work well in all locations.
Read more about this topic: Passive Solar Building Design
Famous quotes containing the words design and/or tools:
“To nourish children and raise them against odds is in any time, any place, more valuable than to fix bolts in cars or design nuclear weapons.”
—Marilyn French (20th century)
“In child rearing it would unquestionably be easier if a child were to do something because we say so. The authoritarian method does expedite things, but it does not produce independent functioning. If a child has not mastered the underlying principles of human interactions and merely conforms out of coercion or conditioning, he has no tools to use, no resources to apply in the next situation that confronts him.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)