2. Passive Solar Architecture
Uses building elements for energy capture and storage
Windows for solar gain, daylighting,
ventilation
Overhangs, fins, and shading for solar control
Convective, radiant sky, or evaporative cooling
Work even when the power is out!

3. Passive Solar Architecture
First described in Greece and Rome
Driven by rising charcoal prices
Widespread use of solar design
Solar cities, solar access, passive heating and cooling
If our designs are to be correct we must...take notice of the countries and climates in which they are built. Vitruvius

4. Solar cities develop Planning and street layout Building orientation
Passive design improved comfort and the quality of life

5. Summer comfort
A well to do Roman family would have fountains and pools for summer cooling
Today we might use an indirect evaporative cooler

6. Passive Heating 1.0 Most people first think of passive solar heating
This is easy - face south, add windows or a solar room or conservatory
Bodie, California 1930s

7. 1930 Swiss Solar
Fuel shortages and high costs after WWI led to solar design in Germany and Switzerland
Neubühl, near Zurich, is a cooperative solar village

8. 1940s Solar USA
George Fred Keck designed Solar Park homes for Howard Sloan in 1941
Good orientation for winter, solar control in summer but under-insulated, not enough mass
Illinois was the home of Libby-Owens-Ford a double pane glass maker who supported solar development

9. 1950 Solar Sustainable
A rammed earth passive solar home was built in 1950 by David and Lydia Miller in Greeley, Colorado
The owners and architect J Palmer Boggs were delighted with performance

10. 1951 Solar Design Tools
Architects in the 1950s had solar design tools for the first time
Solar homes were built, primarily by architects for the well-to-do
But subsidized electricity, low cost air conditioning, and mass production soon killed solar design

11. Passive heating 2.1
The next step was adding more thermal mass to store energy for heat at night in winter
A concrete floor or plaster walls provide some mass
But more may be needed

12. 1956 Mass Wall -- France Masonry wall for thermal mass
Glazing outside gathers solar energy
Vents allow heat in/reduce night loss
American Edward Morse 1880s
Rediscovered in France by Félix Trombe
Trombe wall
Trombe Wall - Odiello

13. 1961 Passive Solar School Wallasey, England--Emslie Morgan, architect
The first effective large passive solar design
Double glazing, high mass with external insulation
Good interior daylighting
Students, sun and lights provided all the heat

14. 1972 Water Is Often Best
Steve Baer built this high performance water wall home
Corrales, New Mexico
His company, Zomeworks, is still active today

15. 1976 Water wall
This water tank was the first rectangular water wall, 1976
Mass floor, solar orientation and overhangs for solar control
Also 3 tank ICS solar water heater
Energy use 90% below average

16. Passive heating 2.2 Better insulation, more mass
Water wall passive home (DAB solar design)
Smaller rectangular steel water tanks
Energy use cut 75%

17. Cooling 3.0 - Solar Control
Overhangs work on south facing walls
East and west may need fins, shutters, awnings, shades
Toldos cover courtyards
Landscaping helps, trees to SE/SW not south
Green walls

18. Cooling - Night Vent Night convective cooling
Water wall office, Jon Hammond 1975
Culverts add surface area for improved heat exchange
Cross and stack ventilation during the day can also provide cooling by evaporation

19. Enhanced ventilation
Traditional designs also utilized ventilation, often with evaporative cooling for a boost
In Iran cool air may be drawn from underground water tunnels (qanats)
Fountains and pools enhanced cooling breezes

20. Integrated Design 4.0 ICS water heaters
Greg Acker designed this culvert water wall home
Solar control, night vent cooling
Direct gain solar heating with a water wall
70% savings on energy use
Roll down awning-summer
Water filled culverts behind

21. Roof mass integrated design
Roof mass can be heated in winter by the sun
Cooled in summer at night
Water or highmass material

22. 100% Heating and Cooling
Harold Hay, Ken Haggard and Phil Niles full scale Skytherm house 1973
Sliding insulation panel system not well developed

23. Improved roof pond system
Jon Hammond redesign uses hydraulic rams
Lids up on cool summer nights and closed in the day
Lids down on winter nights and up on sunny winter days

24. More cooling for hot climates
1970s - The Environmental Research Lab in Tucson
Research on the excellent performance of downdraft evaporative cooling towers

25. Evaporation and radiant sky cooling -- the Cool Pool
A shaded evaporating roof pond can maintain comfort under extreme conditions
Radiation to the cool sky adds to evaporation
Performed very well in a hot parking lot at the California State Fair

26. Un-integrated design
Solar brutal - too many windows, not enough insulation, thermal mass, or solar control
Can be too hot in any season--but still cold on dark winter days
Common in 1970s New Mexico but this example is from Oregon
Still done today - poor orientation can be disastrous
South windows should
Be 10-20% of floor area,
rarely more

27. Estimated costs Clothesline 0.002 cents per kwh Passive design DHCV
Passive water heater
1-2 cents per kwh
Active water heater
2-7 cents per kwh
Photovoltaic
10-30 cents per kwh

28. Daylighting 5.0 Daylighting reduces cooling loads
Improves people’s attitude and health
Saves energy
Often the key factor in commercial buildings

29. Easy to model
Light shelves on south facing walls are very effective for daylighting
They control glare and bounce light further in
Models allow quick checks of lighting

30. Daylighting Orientation (12 ft) Taller ceiling (16 ft)
Light shelf (25 ft)
Angled ceiling (28 ft)
Optimized (39 ft)
Use physical and/or computer model

31. Community design 5.0
Mike and Judy Corbett start a remarkable solar development with passive solar heating and cooling
More than 200 units, designed for bikes, walking and community building
50% less energy used than adjacent developments (1975)
Mixed use
A delightful place

32. The challenge in 1980
We knew how to do very high performance buildings
With super-insulation and effective thermal mass (water best)
How could we build super-insulated buildings with high internal mass at competitive cost?

33. The answer emerges DB, Matts Myhrman, Bill Steen
A consulting job for a pig farmer in 1983 led me to straw bale building
Historic straw bale buildings in Nebraska, Wyoming and Alabama
In 1989 the first straw bale workshop was held near Oracle, AZ
DB, Matts Myhrman, Bill Steen

34. 1994 The Straw Bale House
Straw bales provides high insulation value and significant amounts of plaster for distributed thermal mass
Just five years later we published the first big book on straw bale construction
Sale have now passed 125,000
There are more than 20 sb books in many languages

35. Straw bale passive solar homes
Near Bishop, by Ken Haggard and Pliny Fisk
Probably the first permitted straw bale in California
With composting toilets, greywater biobeds
Higher performance--modest price

36. Integrated commercial design 6.0
Daylighting
Passive heating, cooling, ventilation
General Services would not accept a floating temperature in our 240,000 square foot building in 1975
Even after we showed it would be better than existing buildings nearby
88% energy savings predicted
Jon Hammond, David Bainbridge, Loren Neubauer, Jim Plumb, Marshall Hunt, Denny Long, Living Systems

37. Office space 1976
Ken Haggard and SLOSG submitted a roof pond design the next year
It would have provided 100% heating and cooling
The design was not “hierarchical” enough

38. Office space
Ken Haggard, Polly Cooper and their staff have designed more than 200 passive solar buildings since 1975
This is their passive solar, straw bale off-grid office
Daylit, natural ventilation
Waterwall for heating and cooling

39. Assembly building/offices
Daylit, naturally heated, cooled ventilated synagogue
Energy use 82% below California’s energy code
Water walls for thermal mass
Straw bale walls
Ken Haggard and Polly Cooper
San Luis Obispo Sustainability Group, 2006

40. Police station Daylit, light shelves Passive solar Police station
Visalia
Jon Hammond, Indigo Architecture, 2006

41. Passive Solar Europe
Germany and Scandinavia began passive solar home building in the 1990s
Good resources and support
Typical 70-90% savings
Driven by true cost pricing 30¢ kwh
PassivHaus Institute

42. Big office buildings!
ING (NMB) bank building in Amsterdam, 550,000 sqft by Ton Albert (1987)
Daylit, natural ventilation
Passive and active solar
90% energy use reduction no increase in cost
Reduced absenteeism
Overcrowding led to changes in systems - mechanical added
Operable windows did experience some noise issues

43. Mixed use passive The Prisma building in Nuremberg
Design Dr. W. Stahl, SUNNA
Daylit, passive heating, cooling and ventilation
140,000 square feet

44. The global challenge Simple passive solar straw bale homes
ADRA
Simple passive solar straw bale homes
Thousands underway in China thanks to Kelly Lerner and other volunteers, ADRA
In Mongolia energy use was cut 80%

45. Passive solar obstacles
An anti-solar
building--we could hardly do worse
Perverse incentives--almost everyone involved has incentives to do the wrong thing
Key issues - subsidies, developer v/s client, tax code
Result: sealed, unhealthy, unsustainable buildings
Estimated lost productivity and medical costs $200 billion a year (Dept of Energy)

46. What should we expect? Health, comfort, joy and beauty!
90% less energy needed for heating and cooling
90% daylighting
Natural ventilation with operable windows for most buildings < 6 stories
Comparable first cost
More sustainable materials