Passive Design Strategies

Summary

Passive design uses a building's form, orientation, glazing, mass, and surroundings to collect and reject heat without mechanical systems. Strategy follows climate, so decide orientation and massing first and tune glazing, shading, and mass to the region.

Cols

Image

Passive Design Strategies.jpg

Goal: collect, store, and distribute solar heat in winter and reject it in summer
Design inputs: orientation, elevation, room layout, materials, and surrounding landscape all contribute

Components

Glazing and shading: admit winter sun, block summer sun
Thermal mass: concrete, stone, brick, and tile, mostly in floors and walls
Ventilation: cross ventilation and night cooling in hot-dry climates
Landscape: deciduous shade trees and windbreaks

Selection

Hot-humid: passive cooling is limited by humidity; mechanical dehumidification is needed
Hot-dry: shading, mass, night ventilation, and evaporative cooling
Cold: solar collection with mass, behind a well-insulated envelope
See the climate region notes for detail

Sources

U.S. Department of Energy: guide to passive solar home design, https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/guide_to_passive_solar_home_design.pdf
Wikimedia Commons: Mur trombe 02.jpg, by Arnaud 25 (CC BY-SA 4.0), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mur_trombe_02.jpg

Scope

Components

Selection

Sources