Passive solar design

From Greenlivingpedia, a wiki on green living, building and energy

Passive solar design features include:

• Orienting buildings so that North facing windows allow sunlight to enter living spaces.
• Using sunlight from North facing windows to heat living spaces when you want to warm a building
• Using thermal mass (such as masonry walls and concrete slabs) to regulate internal temperature variations.
  • In summer, thermal mass can keep a building a cool duing hot days (if you keep the sun off it)
  • In winter, you can allow thermal mass to warm up in sunlight so it can give off heat during the evenings
• Using shading systems to keep sunlight away from North, East and West facing windows when you want to keep a building cool