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Product Description
Product Description
Passive solar heating and passive cooling--approaches known as natural conditioning--provide comfort throughout the year by reducing, or eliminating, the need for fossil fuel. Yet while heat from sunlight and ventilation from breezes is free for the taking, few modern architects or builders really understand the principles involved. Now Dan Chiras, author of the popular book The Natural House, brings those principles up to date for a new generation of solar enthusiasts. The techniques required to heat and cool a building passively have been used for thousands of years. Early societies such as the Native American Anasazis and the ancient Greeks perfected designs that effectively exploited these natural processes. The Greeks considered anyone who didn't use passive solar to heat a home to be a barbarian! In the United States, passive solar architecture experienced a major resurgence of interest in the 1970s in response to crippling oil embargoes. With grand enthusiasm but with scant knowledge (and sometimes little common sense), architects and builders created a wide variety of solar homes. Some worked pretty well, but looked more like laboratories than houses. Others performed poorly, overheating in the summer because of excessive or misplaced windows and skylights, and growing chilly in the colder months because of insufficient thermal mass and insulation and poor siting. In The Solar House, Dan Chiras sets the record straight on the vast potential for passive heating and cooling. Acknowledging the good intentions of misguided solar designers in the past, he highlights certain egregious--and entirely avoidable--errors. More importantly, Chiras explains in methodical detail how today's home builders can succeed with solar designs. Now that energy efficiency measures including higher levels of insulation and multi-layered glazing have become standard, it is easier than ever before to create a comfortable and affordable passive solar house that will provide year-round comfort in any climate. Moreover, since modern building materials and airtight construction methods sometimes result in air-quality and even toxicity problems, Chiras explains state-of-the-art ventilation and filtering techniques that complement the ancient solar strategies of thermal mass and daylighting. Chiras also explains the new diagnostic aids available in printed worksheet or software formats, allowing readers to generate their own design schemes.
About the Author
Daniel D. Chiras is the author of The Natural House (Chelsea Green, 2000). He holds a Ph.D. in physiology and teaches courses on sustainability and environmental health at the universities of Colorado and Denver. He is the author of five college and high school text books as well as other books on global environmental issues. Chiras is also an avid musician, organic gardener, river runner, and bicyclist. He lives with his family in a passive solar/solar electric, straw bale, and rammed tire house in Evergreen, Colorado. For more information please visit www.danchiras.com.
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Most helpful customer reviews
24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thorough, concise, and up-to-date info for solar designs,
By A Customer
This review is from: Solar House: Passive Heating and Cooling (Paperback)
I have spent a lot of time researching passive solar designs using books from the library & information on the internet. A lot of books on solar designs are from the 70's & 80's and the designs lead to overheating of homes by overglazing (too many windows). Some of the more current books on solar design gave more vague information, and didn't thoroughly describe concepts and materials.This book has it all! Very good information on all the design elements, such as direction of home, foundation designs, window ratios, as well as recommendations for particular products. The book had in-depth information on all the available heating systems including solar heating, heat pumps, & radiant floor heating. At the end of the description for each heating system, there was a pro/con list that talked about the energy effiency, cost, & performance of each heating system over others . There was a helpful chart on hot water heaters with payback periods for different fuels (solar, electric, gas, propane) so you could compare the costs associated with the fuel. In all of my research, this was the first such chart that really spelled out the benefits of certain fuels over others. The book was written in 2002, so it is very up-to-date with the most current products & concepts.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent guide for embracing ecology-friendly living,
By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Solar House: Passive Heating and Cooling (Paperback)
The Solar House: Passive Heating And Cooling by global environmental issues expert Daniel D. Chiras is an "user friendly" architectural guide to choosing and implementing an energy-efficient and environmentally friendly backup heating system, and thereby making any dwelling both cost-effective and naturally heated and/or air conditioned. Black-and-white sketches clearly illustrate the detailed walk-throughs about the basics of passive solar heating, passive cooling, assessing the performance of one's energy system and much more. An excellent guide for embracing ecology-friendly living, The Solar House is especially recommended as a do-it-yourself home reference for the non-specialist general reader with an interest in making their personal home as comfortable and environmentally friendly as possible.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must read book!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Solar House: Passive Heating and Cooling (Paperback)
The Solar House by Dan Chiras is a masterpiece. Chiras' inimitable style shows through on every page. Like his other books, the writing is clear and engaging. The book is well organized and full of useful information. It is an absolute delight to read. Most books on passive solar tend to ignore or give superficial treatment to several vital subjects, for example, passive cooling, region-specific design, indoor air quality, and back-up heating systems. And many books still propagate some pretty bad designs. Not this one! The Solar House covers passive solar design and construction in great detail, drawing on modern science and architecture, yet is easy to read and understand. Not only will you find just about everything you need to know about designing an energy-efficient solar home, you will learn about common mistakes still being made by some designers -- and ways to avoid them! It could save you a fortune on construction and heating and cooling costs.
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