Great drawings and explanations! I agree that 1) being able to open the windows and have the prevailing winds cool the house, and 2) have the overhangs cool the house from the sun, are clearly hugely powerful and underappreciated climate control methods in construction. I agree that if something broke in an air-tight house without these features, it would just become an oven. Keep sharing, and thank you for the good work!
To be clear, passive house takes into consideration the local climate, sun angles and all of these things. And if your incredibly lower energy HRV stops working, you're not SooL, you open a window. And you still have an incredibly performing home. It's not one or the other. Passive House incorporates many or most passive solar concepts. Passive solar incorporating passive house concepts will perform better (even without getting certification). I don't get why some people have to treat it like a competition.
This is brilliant! Thank you for breaking this down. I primarily work on Passive Houses and you are absolutely right that it does not allow you to utilize local and natural materials as much. I wish that all builders and architects could watch this!
Good work. Great presentation. Starting an ecovillage in Buffalo NY. Nice to have resources like this to explain design principles to folks. Keep it up.
The video is super interesting, for a better user experience try to take the background music lower and maybe in the future invest in a better mic ;) I am sure that will help the channel growth ;)
Excellent presentation Christina, good information, clear and concise. Keep going, be consistent and CZcams will eventually reward you. Thank you, John from the UK
Thank you for sharing! I love your explanations and the presentation of passive solar. It's what I want in a house but haven't been able to put my finger on.
Info is nicely presented and cover normal cases. What if you are on the north/west side of mountain/hill and facing north/west or the desired ocean view is north/west? A video on how to target passive solar while facing "the wrong way" would be helpful and very distinct vs. all the typical case videos out there.
Great idea. There is certainly a balancing act with that and trade offs will certainly have to be made. Discussing what trade-offs would be well suited does depend on the situation. I will think about something like this for the next post!
Note: this comment applies only to heating dominated climates. although it's good to design with solar orientation and heat gain in mind, it's a bit tough to say if this design strategy is primarily responsible for the durability of historical buildings. in cold climates, buildings have historically maintained their durability by 1) building out of highly moisture tolerant materials, e.g. old growth trees and solid rocks and 2) using enormous amounts of energy to dry them out (about 40 cords of wood per year for your average Colonial, or 900 million BTUs/year, compared to about 120 million BTUs/year for a New England home now) A wood stove isn't an awful source of backup heat by any means, but they aren't flawless either; woodstoves are typically associated with significantly increased health issues from asthma to cancer, and they are generally bad for neighborhood air quality. Someone asked if it'd be possible to build a small house and avoid some of these expenses, and the answer of course is yes, the smaller you build, the cheaper it gets. But in America we have a tendency to think individualistically, and building tiny is not a realistic systematic approach to solving housing issues. Families need more than 500 square feet. The average ADA compatible bathroom is 150 square feet alone. And there's no way there is enough salvageable old growth wood to solve the housing crisis using this approach anyways. I do think that keeping in mind solar design is very important to good housing design. But one of the main reasons why many of us don't live in flophouses, tenements, Hoovervilles, and house courts anymore is due to the advent of modern building materials. We aren't building with these modern materials in the best way, and this causes problems. But they're solvable problems. Trying to go back to how we built 100 years ago means that only the ultrawealthy will be able to afford housing.
We figured we would need a wood stove in our house, but we don't. Passive solar principles works a lot better than we expected!! Exterior insulation, thermal mass and big unglazed south facing windows works great in our area. Nice stable temperatures are wonderful, our house temperature only drops 3° F overnight. We are in a hot arid climate with temperatures ranging from 5° to 105°. We use an evaporative cooler in the summer, and leave windows open at night to bring in the cooler air. 🌞🏜️
I'm really surprised there isn't more interest in building design. Everyone lives in expensive, low-performance homes and complains bitterly about the heating and cooling costs, maintenance, poor air quality etc. My wife and I designed and built a nice, affordable, passive solar off-grid home and all the neighbors laughed. We installed an evacuated-tube water heating system too and have had free hot water for some six or seven years now. Our heating requirements are somewhere between one quarter to one fifth of theirs, and they don't laugh now!
Great video! I've recently been trying to learn the considerations in designing a house. I think this video sums up most of the important information that needs to be considered in designing a house. Thanks for sharing.
PLEASE, do you have the ability to reedit? The music is way too loud when compared to your voice and is extremely distracting. The information sounded great but I just can't keep watching because the music is too much. Sorry.
Very good video. Would you consider a video on passive greenhouse. I am building one next year using an old basement wall as a back thermal mass feature. While a specific request, I bet others would be interested. Thanks.
Good video, the solar calc info VERY helpful. Pro Tip (not mine / me): Set camera to look up not down. 2nd that the background music distraction, also sound volume was kind of up & down. Still 5 stars tho... LOL
Have to build with historical materials if you are going to get that historical durability. This is very expensive in some places as old growth wood and solid stone are difficult to source.
cost aside, I'm unwilling to cut down old growth trees to build houses @@MemoryPallace. and salvaging old growth wood isn't a viable strategy for solving societal housing problems
Very interesting. One ghing you mentioned was having no more than 4 inches of thermal mass in a passive solar system. Would you be able to explain that please? Thank you
Great video. I am looking for architectural assistance in designing a single, stand alone, rural, residential house that passively cools in a hot and humid climate. I am intrigued by under ground ventilation tunnels that incorporate evaporative cooling and a Trombe Wall to pull cooler air through the structure. Possibly a earthen roof as well. I wonder if you might point me in a direction where I might find assistance?
Super awesome tutorial- I will be rewatching during the design phase! I am wondering if the +/- is reversed in the sun angle latitude formula? 90-43-23.5=23.5 which is winter not summer? Unless I’m mixed up? Or maybe add the angle with an arc on the sketch please for clarity?
Oh no! Did I have that reversed in the video? To clarify, the summers angle is your latitude PLUS the earths tilt and winter is MINUS. You have to make sure you do that addition / subtraction first and then subract that sum from 90 (thats why theres the parenthesis). I can send you a screen shot separately on the angles you need for your latitude. So in winter the angle is 70.5 and in summer it is 23.5. This is from a 90deg vertical line at 0 degrees. I cant seem to send a image here , but if you contact me on my website I'll send you the screen shot.
Hi, Very informative. Can you tell me if I can design a monolithic dome (made with concrete) ton be designed as a passive solar. I plan to have the back half of the dome in a hillside covered with earth. Cooling tubes like in an earthship. Have the fromt like an earthship with a greenhouse. Please let me know what you think. Thank you
It would seem like the first consideration is which direction the front of the house is facing since to take advantage of the sun, it needs to be pointing in the right direction. If it is, then you should be able to.
@@regenerativegardeningwithpatti oh, gotcha. I didn't know where you live, but near Newport Oregon someone built a version of an earth sheltered dome home where instead of building it into the hillside, they bermed it up on multiple "sides". They had a primary "front" with big sliding door windows, and 2 other "sides", one with normal windows and the other the primary entry where cars are parked, etc. The rest was covered in soil. They had a concrete floor for absorbing heat through the primary and side areas and said they used a wood stove only occasionally. Seemed to work well for them. I'll try to remember who did the video and get back to you. Either way, good luck. This is one of the types of homes that really interests me and I wish you the best. Edit: I posted a link in a separate comment just in case they delete it. It's a Kirsten dirksen video with an earth sheltered dome home from 3 months ago- title starts with no bank would loan them money. Also, my description is a bit of, but you'll see in the video.
I live in southern hemi but so close to the equator that the sun is 3/4 year in the north, and 1/4 of the year in the southern sky (although not very far)... but it is high altitude so I need the solar heat! So designing my house poses the issue of also wanting heat in the summer/rainy season (there is still sunny/hazy hours and days).. but on the other side of the house. I guess some eastern/overhead windows/skylights.. but I am afraid roof glass will let out too much heat. Anyone ever build passive-solar in this type of climate/sunlight?
This is a really good question! I am actually dealing with this myself in a design project in Kenya that is high altitude but right near the equator. I think if you use high thermal mass walls, and allow those walls to absorb sun throughout the day you can achieve some passive heating. Is it dry where you are? In this case you could have minimal overhangs. At the end of the day a back up wood stove will be used to heat the interior and masonry walls.
Great drawings and explanations! I agree that 1) being able to open the windows and have the prevailing winds cool the house, and 2) have the overhangs cool the house from the sun, are clearly hugely powerful and underappreciated climate control methods in construction. I agree that if something broke in an air-tight house without these features, it would just become an oven. Keep sharing, and thank you for the good work!
To be clear, passive house takes into consideration the local climate, sun angles and all of these things. And if your incredibly lower energy HRV stops working, you're not SooL, you open a window. And you still have an incredibly performing home.
It's not one or the other. Passive House incorporates many or most passive solar concepts. Passive solar incorporating passive house concepts will perform better (even without getting certification).
I don't get why some people have to treat it like a competition.
Background music/noise is ditracting and does not enhance the presentation.
This is brilliant! Thank you for breaking this down. I primarily work on Passive Houses and you are absolutely right that it does not allow you to utilize local and natural materials as much. I wish that all builders and architects could watch this!
Good detailed overview of key concepts for designing a successful home. Go passive solar design!
Excellent information. Thank you
Good work. Great presentation. Starting an ecovillage in Buffalo NY. Nice to have resources like this to explain design principles to folks. Keep it up.
@ericpeterson5738 Thank you! What part of Buffalo? Most of my family is from there. I'd be curious to hear more about it!
WOW! I am super grateful for this information. Thank you so much as I am building houses for our off grid community in portugal. Thank you so much!
great info, thanks, I made sure I saved your diagrams and plan to put into use in my next home
Very useful information for our new house and environment.
This is the EXACT kind of content and information i was looking for, and you delivered it in a very easy to understand and fluid way!
The video is super interesting, for a better user experience try to take the background music lower and maybe in the future invest in a better mic ;) I am sure that will help the channel growth ;)
Noted!
Christina is good.
The background music and mummering voice(s) are distracting. If you redo the video I’ll finish watching.
Excellent presentation Christina, good information, clear and concise. Keep going, be consistent and CZcams will eventually reward you. Thank you, John from the UK
Thank you for sharing! I love your explanations and the presentation of passive solar. It's what I want in a house but haven't been able to put my finger on.
Such a helpful and well-presented video. I think your channel will grow like crazy with insightful content like this,
Info is nicely presented and cover normal cases. What if you are on the north/west side of mountain/hill and facing north/west or the desired ocean view is north/west? A video on how to target passive solar while facing "the wrong way" would be helpful and very distinct vs. all the typical case videos out there.
Great idea. There is certainly a balancing act with that and trade offs will certainly have to be made. Discussing what trade-offs would be well suited does depend on the situation. I will think about something like this for the next post!
Note: this comment applies only to heating dominated climates. although it's good to design with solar orientation and heat gain in mind, it's a bit tough to say if this design strategy is primarily responsible for the durability of historical buildings. in cold climates, buildings have historically maintained their durability by 1) building out of highly moisture tolerant materials, e.g. old growth trees and solid rocks and 2) using enormous amounts of energy to dry them out (about 40 cords of wood per year for your average Colonial, or 900 million BTUs/year, compared to about 120 million BTUs/year for a New England home now)
A wood stove isn't an awful source of backup heat by any means, but they aren't flawless either; woodstoves are typically associated with significantly increased health issues from asthma to cancer, and they are generally bad for neighborhood air quality.
Someone asked if it'd be possible to build a small house and avoid some of these expenses, and the answer of course is yes, the smaller you build, the cheaper it gets. But in America we have a tendency to think individualistically, and building tiny is not a realistic systematic approach to solving housing issues. Families need more than 500 square feet. The average ADA compatible bathroom is 150 square feet alone. And there's no way there is enough salvageable old growth wood to solve the housing crisis using this approach anyways.
I do think that keeping in mind solar design is very important to good housing design. But one of the main reasons why many of us don't live in flophouses, tenements, Hoovervilles, and house courts anymore is due to the advent of modern building materials. We aren't building with these modern materials in the best way, and this causes problems. But they're solvable problems. Trying to go back to how we built 100 years ago means that only the ultrawealthy will be able to afford housing.
We figured we would need a wood stove in our house, but we don't. Passive solar principles works a lot better than we expected!! Exterior insulation, thermal mass and big unglazed south facing windows works great in our area. Nice stable temperatures are wonderful, our house temperature only drops 3° F overnight. We are in a hot arid climate with temperatures ranging from 5° to 105°. We use an evaporative cooler in the summer, and leave windows open at night to bring in the cooler air. 🌞🏜️
I'm really surprised there isn't more interest in building design. Everyone lives in expensive, low-performance homes and complains bitterly about the heating and cooling costs, maintenance, poor air quality etc. My wife and I designed and built a nice, affordable, passive solar off-grid home and all the neighbors laughed. We installed an evacuated-tube water heating system too and have had free hot water for some six or seven years now. Our heating requirements are somewhere between one quarter to one fifth of theirs, and they don't laugh now!
Great info! Thank you!
Awesome, very helpful, thank you
Thanks for your post - just starting out my research and happy I stumbled across your channel! Well done.
Great video! I've recently been trying to learn the considerations in designing a house. I think this video sums up most of the important information that needs to be considered in designing a house. Thanks for sharing.
This is so helpful thank you!!
Really enjoyed your video, you spoke about the fundamentals of eco home, until like others that mention only tibids. I learned a lot.
PLEASE, do you have the ability to reedit? The music is way too loud when compared to your voice and is extremely distracting. The information sounded great but I just can't keep watching because the music is too much. Sorry.
I was going to suggest using the captions - when I found there weren't any. So it's not it's not an accessible video, unfortunately.
I didn't have any issues with the audio, though there are actually captions now.
This was amazing, ty so much! ❤
Alex Wade wrote several books on these topics in the 70’s or 80’s. Check them out.
Very good video. Would you consider a video on passive greenhouse. I am building one next year using an old basement wall as a back thermal mass feature. While a specific request, I bet others would be interested. Thanks.
Ally (I’m assuming that’s their name) presents these rather complex concepts in easy-to-understand language with good, simple graphics.
Her name is Christina. I believe she is an "ally" of nature.
Good job on this presentation!
Wow...what a clear and helpful video. Subscribed❤
EXCELLENT VIDEO!
Good video, the solar calc info VERY helpful.
Pro Tip (not mine / me): Set camera to look up not down. 2nd that the background music distraction, also sound volume was kind of up & down. Still 5 stars tho... LOL
Have to build with historical materials if you are going to get that historical durability. This is very expensive in some places as old growth wood and solid stone are difficult to source.
It can’t be that bad if you build tiny. How much do you think a 500 square foot passive solar house would cost?
cost aside, I'm unwilling to cut down old growth trees to build houses @@MemoryPallace. and salvaging old growth wood isn't a viable strategy for solving societal housing problems
Very interesting. One ghing you mentioned was having no more than 4 inches of thermal mass in a passive solar system. Would you be able to explain that please? Thank you
You can certainly have more! Its just that is most effective UP TO 4". Hope that makes sense!
Great information
EXCELLENT🌻 and for electric, Top it OFF...the GRIP🏭... with 🌅SOL PV+🔋 ON🌻🗽
6:52 if you have good overhang then surely the 7% window rule is no more
Thanks --- hard to hear -- probably getting a good mic will help -- :)
Working on it!
Great video. I am looking for architectural assistance in designing a single, stand alone, rural, residential house that passively cools in a hot and humid climate. I am intrigued by under ground ventilation tunnels that incorporate evaporative cooling and a Trombe Wall to pull cooler air through the structure. Possibly a earthen roof as well. I wonder if you might point me in a direction where I might find assistance?
Super awesome tutorial- I will be rewatching during the design phase! I am wondering if the +/- is reversed in the sun angle latitude formula? 90-43-23.5=23.5 which is winter not summer? Unless I’m mixed up? Or maybe add the angle with an arc on the sketch please for clarity?
Oh no! Did I have that reversed in the video? To clarify, the summers angle is your latitude PLUS the earths tilt and winter is MINUS. You have to make sure you do that addition / subtraction first and then subract that sum from 90 (thats why theres the parenthesis). I can send you a screen shot separately on the angles you need for your latitude. So in winter the angle is 70.5 and in summer it is 23.5. This is from a 90deg vertical line at 0 degrees. I cant seem to send a image here , but if you contact me on my website I'll send you the screen shot.
The Music 😮
Hi, Very informative. Can you tell me if I can design a monolithic dome (made with concrete) ton be designed as a passive solar. I plan to have the back half of the dome in a hillside covered with earth. Cooling tubes like in an earthship. Have the fromt like an earthship with a greenhouse. Please let me know what you think. Thank you
It would seem like the first consideration is which direction the front of the house is facing since to take advantage of the sun, it needs to be pointing in the right direction.
If it is, then you should be able to.
@@tracy419 yes, I have that figured out. My concern is how tall the domes are. It seems there is a lot of space to heat.cThanks
@@regenerativegardeningwithpatti oh, gotcha.
I didn't know where you live, but near Newport Oregon someone built a version of an earth sheltered dome home where instead of building it into the hillside, they bermed it up on multiple "sides".
They had a primary "front" with big sliding door windows, and 2 other "sides", one with normal windows and the other the primary entry where cars are parked, etc.
The rest was covered in soil.
They had a concrete floor for absorbing heat through the primary and side areas and said they used a wood stove only occasionally.
Seemed to work well for them.
I'll try to remember who did the video and get back to you.
Either way, good luck. This is one of the types of homes that really interests me and I wish you the best.
Edit: I posted a link in a separate comment just in case they delete it.
It's a Kirsten dirksen video with an earth sheltered dome home from 3 months ago- title starts with no bank would loan them money.
Also, my description is a bit of, but you'll see in the video.
Found it faster than I thought -
czcams.com/video/YerFRnGDBYE/video.htmlsi=2_3eLoD5G-BsESVh
Hopefully this posts with the link
I live in southern hemi but so close to the equator that the sun is 3/4 year in the north, and 1/4 of the year in the southern sky (although not very far)... but it is high altitude so I need the solar heat! So designing my house poses the issue of also wanting heat in the summer/rainy season (there is still sunny/hazy hours and days).. but on the other side of the house. I guess some eastern/overhead windows/skylights.. but I am afraid roof glass will let out too much heat. Anyone ever build passive-solar in this type of climate/sunlight?
This is a really good question! I am actually dealing with this myself in a design project in Kenya that is high altitude but right near the equator. I think if you use high thermal mass walls, and allow those walls to absorb sun throughout the day you can achieve some passive heating. Is it dry where you are? In this case you could have minimal overhangs. At the end of the day a back up wood stove will be used to heat the interior and masonry walls.
🦕🦖
Why the need to insert music into the video, it’s annoying and distracting not to mention difficult to hear you !
Less music Pls, use a microphone, and Pls speak articulatly