What Are The Differences Between Regular And Solar Optimized Homes? Advantages Of Passive Solar Design 2022- Building For The Future

When we think solar for homes we often think of fancy solar water heaters or solar panel systems. Solar optimized homes can be built to take full advantage of the sun’s awesome power without much need for fancy gadgets.

Many housing developers and even businesses are consciously looking to build homes and buildings to maximize the sun’s power simply through their design and use of materials.

These developers are building for the future in today’s world. Let’s take a closer look at some of the exciting innovations they have come up with and in some cases combined with solar panel systems to maximize energy savings.

The Difference Between A Regular Home And A Solar Optimized One

By building from the ground up with solar in mind; this is also called passive solar building design. This takes into consideration factors such as the sun’s daily path, climate, thermodynamics (stuff we leave to the science guys ).

A home focused on maximizing the free energy from the sun differs from a regular home in a few simple ways. Firstly they are built to make maximum use of the sun’s most obvious elements which are heating and lighting.

Lighting

Optimized homes often do not need a single light bulb turned on during the day as openings and windows are strategically placed throughout the building to make full use of natural light.

The path the sun takes throughout the day is carefully considered and the orientation of the building is drafted accordingly.

Heating

Solar optimized homes often use materials that are capable of trapping the sun’s radiation and converting it to useful heat;  this usually is not a problem during summer months and in fact cooling is more important at this time of year.

One may think that the most obvious drawback here would be what happens in autumn and winter months when the sun’s angle and length of daylight are diminished. This is solved by clever design and using a controlled screen which can be lowered to minimize absorption of the sun’s radiation during summer and raised in autumn and winter months to allow more radiation to be absorbed.

Pre-Existing Homes Can Also Take Advantage!

Though it is obviously easier to implement solar optimization from the start of home building; it is not too late for already built homes to get in on the action. Existing homes can be retro-fitted with materials and simple mechanisms to take advantage of the sun’s energy.

How Soon Before This Goes Mainstream?

The sooner solar-optimized homes become commonplace in areas where they are most beneficial the better it will be for all involved which is us and the entire planet.

In the U.S alone it is estimated that if buildings were built constructed with a passive solar design in mind from the 1980s; the country would be in line to save a monstrous $250,000,000 per year on energy and pollution costs! Factor that into the whole planet and we could all benefit from that.

Luckily passive solar design is being considered more and more a scientific pursuit and with the foreseen growing instability of current fossil fuels; we can no longer afford not to take full advantage of this tremendous concept!

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