The Passive Solar House: Using Solar Design to Heat and Cool Your Home

This book is a near soup-to-nuts presentation of James Kachadorian's patented passive solar design. The patent had expired when the author released this book. While his design may not be suitable all climates, the book covers the design with a pretty good look at the parameters and calculations behind it. The sizing and calculation process is outlined step by step, and this process appears to be readily adaptable to other passive solar designs. Like many books on passive solar, it tends to focus on passive solar heating and gives less attention to passive solar cooling. As such, the discussions of ventilation strategies aren't as rigorous as those concerning heat loading and thermal storage. All in all, I'd say this book is a must read for those really wanting to begin an education in passive solar design.

If this book's title sounds familiar, it's because it's a revised, expanded edition of a popular survey of the author's patented Solar Slab heat exchanger, which offers a technique for builders to produce houses that virtually heat themselves. THE PASSIVE SOLAR HOUSE: COMPLETE GUIDE TO HEATING AND COOLING YOUR HOME expands upon the prior edition, adding more knowledge gathered from some thirty years of data gathering from existing, successful solar houses. THE PASSIVE SOLAR HOUSE is a welcome and "user friendly" guide recommended to homeowners who are seeking to reduce the expenses of heating and cooling regardless of the age or condition of their houses.

My father found this book and used it, in the Southwest, to design his passive solar heating/cooling system. I am in the process of doing the same. In the winter he needs only a few cords of pine to heat a large 2 story house and in the summer, while I swelter in an appartment w/only North facing glass (!!!), his house is very cool and comfortable. The few negative reviews above appear to be from folks who either didn't pay attention as they read or have pie-in-the-sky "theories" of what passive solar really can do for you. Kachadorian is an engineer and very pragmatic. He is not a "green" builder so keep that in mind. His system works very well in real conditions and does so in a cost effective manner if you do the calculations which are all at about the 7th grade level. Id recommend building them in a spreadsheet- easy to do and lets you "tweak" your design as you go along. Honestly, even if you don't use his system, his calculations are very worth while to design in adequate thermal mass and back-up heating into any house. Good luck!

It is amazing how many houses are plopped down in this country with no consideration of the sun. After reading this book, it becomes apparent that even if we built the same houses, but simply oriented them with respect to the sun (i.e., windowed rooms facing south, closets on the north wall, etc.) we could make drastic reductions in our consumption of natural resources.The book has general information on site selection, house layout, etc. but also details a manner of building involving forgoing a basement for a floor of concrete (for thermal mass), window placement and insulating shutters. During the day, the house will not overheat because the 'solar slab' soaks it up, while at night recirculation techniques are outlined that make this heat available and comfortable at night. The book also includes all the formulas used in the calculations of thermal mass, window sizing, etc. Even if you don't plan on building the house in this book, I got some great ideas involving placement of a hearth (a vertical thermal mass) in front of windows to put the sun to work minimizing the need for heating fuel. If you are planning a house, I'd highly recommend this book.

I picked up this book in a bookstore in Bar Harbor, Maine and 1 year later built a house around its concepts on the coast in Downeast Maine. The house is performing to expectations. We have had no problems over 3 years.Before proceeding, our building plans were independantly verified by a mechanical contractor. He found that the formulas presented in the book were accurate and dependable.The concrete crib added about $3K to the overall cost of the house (it has a 25'x40' footprint) and the windows had to be specially ordered from Andersen. We also had some trouble finding the 6 mil aluminized mylar. The only departure we made from the plans presented was we decreased the amount of air exchange by 50% over what was recommended. We used an outside air intake that funneled outside air into the crib and the bathroom vents (2) for exhaust. We have had no problems with this.I was fortunate to have found a contractor who was willing to take the time to understand the concept and then successfully build to the specifications. A number of foundation contractors turned us down. The contractor had to do the foundation himself. It went very smoothly.If you are serious about building this house, be sure to have very specific architectural plans for your builder....she/he will need them. Procuring the services of a "green" architect who buys into these stuff is most helpful.