"Passive solar"

Passive solar / Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

Concept and design

Prefab Passive House & LEED ready kit homes - the future of buying a new home?

...solar heated radiant floor - see this one go together here: This is the solar heated floor slab-on-grade foundation form kit being assembled for this LEED & Passive House ready prefab kit home, see many more sustainable home building tips & guide videos for LEED, Zero Energy & Passive House on the EcoHome ...

Tiny house

Tiny Houses - Washington State promotes tiny homes & Eco-villages for Affordable Housing in WA

...Solar, Blacktail Solar Homes etc - EcoHome recently enjoyed a reunion of the original "Domies" at UC Davis at the Whole Earth Day celebrations, which we'll be writing more about later. Wouldn't it be great to see self governed tiny home communities like this all over university campuses in Washington State? Next Steps...

Off-grid and Net-Zero Housing

A Toronto Off-grid home 20 years later; how did it fare? How could it be optimized?

...Solar energy collection A successful strategy to power a home with solar energy begins like the water system, with the core principle of first reducing demand. To that end, the appliances and systems of this house were designed and chosen for their reduced operational demand of energy. On the roof are eight photovoltai...

Passive House

The Passive-Aggressive House - Our History of a Passivhaus Build

...passive solar house appropriate for the local climate. The result was the world's first Passivhaus - The Saskatchewan Conservation House, which not only incorporated passive heating from the sun, but also many of the elements that make up the current Passive House standard: careful sealing with tape for air-tightness,...

Greenhouses and Sunrooms / Solariums

Solariums in cold climates won't heat your home

...solariums: Some solariums are bought as kits and used exclusively as living space, others are used for growing vegetables and even fruit. Strictly speaking, a solarium is not a greenhouse, but can be used as such. The typical solarium is usually a glazed space adjacent to a dwelling, separated by an exterior wall and a...

Passive House

Everything you need to know about Passive House certification

...Passive House Institute) and PHIUS (Passive House Institute US) and for Canada there is Passive House Canada and the Canadian Passive House Institute. This guide aims to describe the origins of Passive House certification, which can be accredited to a very futuristic Passive Solar heating design home built in the 1970'...

Architecture and plan design

Lockeport Beach House wins Canadian Green Building award

...passive solar orientation. The three-metre deep cantilevered roof provides shade in the summer, and allows the low winter sun to warm the concrete floors in the cold season. Other complementary strategies include a continuously insulated building envelope, with high performance low-e double-glazing and heat recovery ve...

Off-grid and Net-Zero Housing

Off-grid living blog part 6 - energy modeling projections and real performance

...solar I just wanted to reiterate one more time the usefulness of both active and passive solar in reducing the need for other, usually fossil fuel, sources of energy. If we were to eliminate the solar gain through the windows and disconnect the solar panels, the model suggests that we would need 24,550 kWh/year of powe...

Concept and design

Do Earthships work in cold climates?

...Passive solar home design page to learn how to passively heat a home. 6. Health risks: The tires of an Earthship may release brominated flame retardants (PBDEs) into the air of an Earthship, which is a synthetic material derived from petrochemicals that is toxic to humans through long-term exposure. Mike Reynolds s...

LEED Homes

Canada's first LEED V4 Platinum house - An Ecohome project checklist

...passive house standard windows First performance benchmark for Edelweiss: Passive Solar Index 15 Registration date: August 25, 2015 Region: Outaouais, Quebec Type of construction: Single-family New home PSI rating: 15 kWh / m² Method of calculation: measured post-occupancy One of Edelweiss's most impressive attributes...

Concept and design

Building science for LEED v4 wall design made easy - video

...passive solar heat gain. The Ecohome R.E.M.O.T.E. wall The difference here compared to what is commonly done with the REMOTE wall technique is that we used rigid mineral wool batts instead of polystyrene rigid insulation (EPS or XPS - see comparisons here) . We chose this option for a variety of reasons. Mineral woo...