Passive solar architecture is a design strategy that optimizes a building’s energy efficiency and long-term sustainability. By relying on a building site’s solar orientation and climate ...

Passive solar energy is based on one element, the sun. Once the sun’s radiation hits Earth’s surface, the rays can either be absorbed, reflected, and/or transmitted.

Main elements of passive solar architecture. Commonly accepted passive solar home design principles say that you should orient a house in a way that allows it to collect heat from the sun and then ...

Passive solar technology came into use when early builders noticed that dense building materials, such as stone and brick, remained warm for hours after being heated by the sun.

In the U.S., passive solar heating is incorporated into building designs across the country, though it’s far more common in areas with heavy sun exposure, such as the Southwest and coastal regions.

Passive solar design is nothing new — it has probably been around as long as people have been building houses — and it has nothing to do with solar panels. It’s all about creating a ...

Building a passive solar home was only a little more expensive at the start, but she said it was well worth it. “It’s just my house now,” she said. “It’s just where I live.

Building a new passive solar home only adds up to 3% to 5% of the construction cost. In the United States, 1.4 million new homes are built every year, so there is always a large potential market ...

Even diehard Instagrammers admit it: Sometimes the best design is in what you don’t see. Such is the case with passive solar design, an approach to building that—in a nutshell—uses a house’s site, ...

A passive solar house is typically designed from scratch factoring in several considerations to boost the structure’s ability to naturally keep the interior living spaces a comfortable air ...

The Passive House approach also incorporates measures to recapture energy in previously heated air through heat recovery ventilators, to optimize natural lighting, and to minimize solar heat gain.

He also co-founded the U.S. Green Building Council's New Mexico chapter and launched One Earth Design to bring passive solar building principles to life.