Passive solar designs

[kc0bus]

 Boy oh boy, what I wouldn't give to see some TRUE passive solar small house designs on this forum...   :'(

  I know that I may be a little out of season with this topic but it escapes me as to why anyone would not design a house without at least a little passive solar aspect to it. Especially in this day and age of escalating energy costs...  Why would one want to deliberately turn down free heat during the winter when one doesn't have to?! It just doesn't make sense to me.

  Sadly, it seems to me that the most important architectural things to people these days aren't passive solar designs but rather things that I call "architectural fluff". Such as stacked fake dormers (as in dormers that are stacked one in front of the other), the mass produced McMansion theme, unnecessary extra square footage just for show, low build quality and a distinct lack of craftsmanship, cheap looking vinyl siding (I swear if I see another house with cheap looking horizontal vinyl siding I think I'm going to hurl!), the understated and subdued earth-tone paint schemes.... ick!

  All I know is that after living in a house for 25 years without any passive solar aspect to it, my next house will have a very definite passive solar design aspect to it. Be it stone or concrete flooring of some type, proper window surface area to wall surface area ratio on the south side, proper length roof eaves overhang, functioning interior shutters, etc, etc., etc....  

  Being a neophyte, your not likely to see any truely innovative small home passive solar designs from me for some time to come.  But I, for one, am working on it!  

[Daddymem]

I'm with you.  Sometimes the simplest things can make a conventional home a passive solar home.  For example we are working on John's 2 story farmhouse.  We plan on facing the kitchen side of the house towards the sun.  Combined with overhangs, window hoods or awnings, windows and some thermal mass and you have a passive solar or sun tempered house.  John's saltbox is also a solar home.

We walked through a modular ranch the other day that had a great flow to it at less than 900 sf and it too would work great set on a lot properly.

http://www.sunplans.com/html/home_page.php3 has a some plans of medium size which you could trim down.

The state of home building today sits mainly on the shoulders of the market and not architects or contractors.  The contractors developing the land have to please the largest body of the potential buyers in order to sell houses.  Square footage, raised ceilings, open floor plans are all things that are hard or impossible to add at a later date.  Also you have to face it, there are more people out there that want vinyl than there are people looking for wood.  To change things, you would have to change the population.

Another obstacle are the mortgage companies and their requirements for loans.  Houses have to be 100% complete including shrubs in front in order to get a mortgage.  I personally do not have the time (or experience) to build my own house at this point in my life so I have to have someone do it for me.  I would love nothing more than to move into a home with no siding, plywood floors, unfinished walls and unfinished ceilings that I could finish on my own.  Try getting a loan with that idea...they don't want the risk of you defaulting on the loan and leaving them with an unfinished home.  This means that I will likely have a home with cheap finishes to be upgraded at a later date, and since I still have to pay for those cheap finishes, the later date gets further away from move in day.

See where this is going?  It isn't a simple issue to tackle, there is no single group to put the blame on.  There are many people living in those McMansions not by choice but by neccessity since no other options are there for them.  And of course there are many people who actually like the McMansions or don't care what kind of place they live in and that is their perogative.

I personally think the best way to change things would be to work on the contractors and get them thinking that making houses more unique can bring in buyers.  Placement on the lot, details instead of square footage, material choices and colors, interesting building lines...these are all low cost or no cost that can make a difference, but just try to convince the contractors that.

When I look out my window I see many houses of many styles, finishes, shapes and colors.  This is because the houses were constructed individually over time not as a subdivision.  Subdivisions tend to get a singular look to them (again contractor driven: you can pick from any one of these four models!).  Your distaste of vinyl is similar to mine of T-111 which is used on too many cottages around here.  Trust me, if enough houses in a row are finished with this stuff even vinyl is a nice relief.  Sort of like the stuccos in the south....way too many in a row to be pleasing to the eye.

[jonseyhay]

I really gotta jump in on this one. I am always amazed that some people think that passive solar design is some kind of magic formula. You know, you gotta do it this way or it just won't work. Almost any of the plans on this site and a lot of others, are what I would call passive solar, or could easily be made so. Proper orientation is the key. Of course, this would depend on the lie of the land and if you have the luxury of siting your building any way you want. Even, if you get to design or build your own home. Rock or concrete is not always the most suitable construction material in some locations; there are other methods of getting thermal mass into a building. Insulation is probably one of the most important things to consider in any building and I think most folk would not consider building a house without it. As for paint that would depend on whether you wanted to absorb or reflect the heat or cold, with of course a bit of leeway for personal taste in color schemes.
Got to agree with you on the vinyl siding,   but that's just personal, and as Daddymem says, if you've been eating steak for a while, beans, beans, taste just fine.
Another aspect of solar design is available funds, and I think that most that visit this site are just like me, (that is, battlers) we do the best we can with what we have.
I think a search through the archives of this site would turn up any amount of solar building ideas. As for the McMansion, I must have missed that one. (Cricky! now I'll probably get a whack from Amanda for not paying attention).
Don't take this personal mate, it's just my point of view.
Regards,
 Jonsey.
 

[glenn-k]

Hey, Scott.   I have a question about functioning interior shutters.  I was just thinking about this the other day. Wouldn't exterior shutters be better as once the heat is through the glass it is already inside the house.  Wouldn't interior shutters work like a Trombe wall circulating heat inside the house anyway  

It seems to me heat striking outside shutters would stay outside better.

[Amanda_931]

Hey, I live in the South, where cooling is also important from, say, March through October.

And I turn the AC on in the car or truck during every month of the year, even though both are light-colored, and I live in the Central and not the Deep South.

 

That said, I love daylighting.  

Thermal mass is necessary if you want an agressive solar heating setup--I've lived in a couple of lightly built apartments over crawl spaces or another apartment where there was lots of solar heating in the summer, and maybe a bit on winter afternoons.

I do have friends who have a house that is almost all non-opening glass on the south side.  North is buried in the ground, I think it's not insulated or waterproofed (they've probably got good drainage control, though).  That house is pretty comfortable throughout the year in this area, a small AC unit keeps it dry and does some cooling through the summer.

The recommendation for the percentage of south-facing glass in the walls is surprisingly small, unless you really do have some kind of annualized system through your thermal mass, or a way of moving the heat through your building--at least according to the guy who recommends putting a layer of concrete block run sideways so there is front-to-back air movement under your floors.

Not much opinion on inside shutters, unless you are thinking of the heavily insulated curtains.  They work.  But during summer days, they do take away from daylighting.  Been looking at the "inside the window" blinds for light and privacy control, they ain't much count for heat control.  My cats love destroying blinds.

I'd think outside shutters are more important in hurricane/typhoon areas, maybe during winter storms as well or even tornado warnings, although those can be all the time in the summer.  Meterological phenomena where you don't climb up and down ladders every day, just before and after the storms.

[contractor in NY]

As a contractor I must agree with kcobus that I would prefer to build a smaller quality house than a mcmansion.  With that thought in mind I am currently developing a business plan to build spec/presold small quality built starter and/or retirement homes.  Small (no larger than 1200 sq. ft.) 2-3 bedroom , 1 or 11/2 bath, with attention paid to those important areas such as sufficient entryway and storage.  Basic house would include wood floors and wood siding.  No jacuzzi tub!  I am currently trying to find 3 basic designs to start with: simple cape/ranch/saltbox.   Would like some feedback on this idea.  I am thinking there are alot of people out there that given the choice would prefer this as opposed to one of those "manufactured" homes.  These prefabs are being erected at an alarming rate around here in upstate NY.  Well I am still in the planning stage ; input please.  Also if anyone can point out some simple houseplans I would appreciate it.  

[Daddymem]

Simple house plans?  http://www.countryplans.com/plans.html

John has many.  
Not sure why no jacuzzi, just because something is small, doesn't mean it can't be lavish.  I'd prefer one large bathroom to 1-1/2 small bathrooms and a nice big soaker tub is high on the list for me.  Of course if you go too far you end up with one of Ross Chapin's houses where you pay as much for a cottage as you would a McMansion.  Also not sure why not prefab?  They can be built as simple or as lavish as a stick built.  If you can put it on a house they can too.  Plywood, wood siding, 2x6, no OSB...all no problem.  The real drawbacks come from shipping dimensions (length, width, and height of the boxes).  
Keiser has some nice farmhouses:  
This one is 1,500 sf with the master and living room pushed out, but it comes in around 1,000 sf without. (that is 15' wide and it comes on two trucks!) And that 900sf ranch we were in was very efficient.  (Kent homes, model Greenwood I think)
Where in upstate NY?  Too bad not just a little closer...you could smack my contractor in the back of the head to get some sense in him (or maybe take his job).  

[MountainDon]

Oh crap, another one!  Oh Glenn.....

[glenn kangiser]

Got em Don - worked 18 hrs today.