Tag Archives: passive solar building design

Passive solar design: the fast facts

With the rising cost of power and sustainable building fast becoming a high priority for many home owners, learning about passive solar design is the first step. The approach is applicable to 95% of Australian climates.

1.Orientate your home north

1. Orientate your home north

Passive solar design is a fairly simple concept and it begins with selecting the right block of land. Your constructed home should face north on the block. If the front of the block doesn’t face north, an environmental architect will be able to work with you to design a home that makes the most of the block.

2.Design windows for maximum solar gain

2. Design windows for maximum solar gain

The design of the windows in your home can make a huge difference. If the majority of the windows face north they will collecting the sun in winter in most climates in Australia. This is the most effective way of achieving natural warmth in your home and reducing heating costs. Good windowing shading during the summer months will stop the sun’s glare from hitting the windows and heating up your home.

3.Use natural, heavy materials

3. Use natural, heavy materials

Construct the walls of your home with natural, heavy-weight materials such as concrete, brickwork, stone or rammed earth. These materials will help to keep the temperature of your home more stable regardless of the season.

4.Ventilate naturally

4. Ventilate naturally

Plan for good natural ventilation. Creating cross-breezes with open windows or doors can cool a home significantly. Placing doors and windows in a way to maximise the breezes through a home is the cheapest way to cool your home. The installation of a ducted vent through into the roof space with an openable damper in the ceiling that can allow hot air to rise and drag through cooler air at night, particularly in bedrooms.

5.Insulate properly

5. Insulate properly

Lastly, make sure the home is insulated properly – it is just as important as all the other aspects of solar passive design.

The reality is, if you want to have a passive solar house, to save energy and money, be comfortable and reduce greenhouse gases, you have to plan and do it right from the moment you start looking at blocks to build your home on.

Ecotect Architects is a leading, award-winning architectural practice that provides tailored, professional services to people who want to live and work in energy efficient urban designed buildings that are water and energy efficient. Click on Environmental Architects Perth to contact us.

Green Building Products

Green Building Supply

There’s no doubt that the sun is very powerful indeed – we’ve been using it for the drying of clothes and cooking of food for years. However, in recent years, new technology has allowed us to really harness the power of the sun and use it for the generation of domestic and non-domestic power. Although the sun is around 150 million kilometres away from the earth and just a small fraction of its energy actually reaches the earth, this amount alone is enough to meet all of the world’s power needs many times over.

Rebates and Government Grants

To encourage the use of solar power, there are a variety of government grants available, depending on your country of residence, to help you install solar power systems. Solar panels are not difficult to maintain and with the correct care, can last you a lifetime. Following the initial installation phase, you may look forward to receiving a healthy reduction in your energy costs in the years to come. Photovoltaic panels are usually installed to supply energy back to your local grid system. The energy you use during the hours of sunlight is deducted from that which you produce and the surplus fed into the grid and credited to your account.

Range of Green Building Products

Green Products Image Grey Water Filter

Grey Water Filter

The range of products now readily available in the market has grown tremendously in recent years but it will require a little extra research to find those that suit your project. A typical shopping list of green building products will include:

  • solar panels or components
  • photovoltaic panels
  • sun control shade systems
  • non-toxic building materials
  • smart-power meters
  • cabinet coatings and laminates without formaldehydes
  • low energy light fittings,
  • laundry and grey water recycling system
  • low odour eco-friendly oils and paints
  • eco-friendly termite control
  • rainwater tanks
Green Products Image Rainwater Tank

Rain Water Tank

Green architects specialising in energy efficient building design or simply offering green home plans, should be able to provide you with a list of green building supply companies offering a range of products suitable for installation into their building design. There are many websites offering green building products to cater for your needs.

Switch to Renewable Energy and Save Money

Across the globe, millions of homes and businesses are making plans to switch to renewable energy sources, such as solar panels and solar hot water systems. In doing so, they can harness the planet’s natural resources, reduce their dependence on expensive and depleting fossil fuels and save on running costs for their homes and businesses. In particular, solar energy is becoming a very popular option for the powering of homes and wind power is gaining in popularity for commercial or remote area sites where the wind is strong.

To meet this significant increase in worldwide demand, green building supply companies are proliferating – resulting in a larger selection of green building products, sustainable materials and environmentally friendly options. The majority of manufacturers or agents selling these products will be able to advise you on the best choice for your project, according to your budget and preferences. Your architect should also be able to advise you about green building certification once you have completed your building project.

Eco-Development Website

Image eco compound

Eco-compound Using Green Building Products

If you are looking for a green building supply company – take a look online, visit the many websites available and compare the choices, the range, guarantees offered and prices. Refer to this eco-development website for a suggested list of suppliers and products used in an award-winning eco-compound created for two families in Western Australia.

Ask For Recommendations

Ask for referrals: if you know someone who has recently undertaken a successful green project, for example installing photovoltaic panels or a solar hot water system, ask them who they used. With a little research, you could soon be on your way to reducing your carbon footprint and making a real difference to our planet by joining the worldwide trend to using green building supply products. In addition to restricting use of  toxic substances indoors, with attention to your outdoor landscape you can create a healthy eco-system for birds and frogs.

Image Green Building Products Eco System

Healthy Eco-System

For more information on energy efficient architecture and how to build a green building, check out the green home building books and dvds available in the solar-e shop.
The more you know about the principles of low energy building design, the more appreciative you will be of the design process. We highly recommend the user-friendly green building design guide “Low Energy Buildings in Australia”.

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AuSES Conference Best Papers: Solar Energy Environmental Benefits Best Papers

We have prepared list of solar-e.com’s own selection of ranked candidates for the Solar Energy Environmental Benefits best papers presented at the ‘Solar 2010’ Conference: Policies and Strategies (including the Economics of solar energy, diversity of derived forms of solar energy, electricity grids and data collection)

The analysis and understanding the of more obscure fields of solar energy related technology and policy developments is obviously another critical step forward to applying more solar energy in our economy. this section will hopefully expand as more papers are delivered in the future.

AuSES Committee – Best Papers at AuSES Solar 2010 as judged by the AuSES panel

Student Prizes – Wal Read Memorial Prizes
Post Graduates Prizes
BILBAO, Jose “PV-Thermal Water Systems as a Retrofit for Near Zero Energy Homes”
Winner $1500 AUD
BAMBROOK, Shelley “Experimental PVT Air System for Dwellings”
Highly Commended $1000 AUD
LHENDUP, Tshewang “Simulation of a Ground-coupled Heat Pump Combined with Solar Collectors”
Commended $250 AUD
ELLISTON, Ben “Grid parity: A potential misleading concept?”
Commended $250 AUD

Undergraduates Prizes
BRAZIER, Thomas “Dependence of installed cost of a 1.5 kW rooftop PV system on module efficiency”
Joint Winner $1,000 AUD
BOEREMA, Nicholas “Economics of constraints on wind farms – SA”
Joint Winner $1,000 AUD
O’BRIEN, Paul “Exergetic analysis of a steam-flashing thermal storage system”
Joint Winner $1,000 AU

Solar Energy Environmental Benefits: Solar-e.com Director Garry Baverstock’s personal selection of the Best Papers

At the conference the papers were presented under a number of category headings such as Built Environment, Wind Power, Photovoltaics, Environmental Benefits, Solar Thermal and Solar Energy Economics. Following is our selection of the worthwhile papers and a ranking based on relevance to world situation on Climate Change, the impact on the increased use of solar energy and the quality of the research as presented in the paper.
The Solar Energy Environmental Benefits best papers, in our opinion, have been listed below. This is our opinion, but we are interested in what the solar experts think and any comments are welcome. If we have overlooked a paper or you disagree with our assessment please feel free to offer your opinion. If bona fide it will be published.

A comment by solar-e.com is included after each listing.

Image Trees in Forest

1.A Novel  System of Combined Power Generation and Hot water Desalination Using Renewable Energy

Fulaqi, Anhitijit Date, Aliakbar Akbarzadeh
Comment: Desalination is already becoming a necessity and this is renewable energy must be used to make water supply economically viable.

2. Efficiency Improvement Using Solar Desiccant Drying for Selected Solar Seeds

Kame Khouzam
Comment:Drying of seeds in developing countries is an important use of solar energy to increase yields and food production

3. Sustainable Non Condensable Gas Removal from Geothermal Waters

Anna Khaghani1, Abhijit Date, Rene Wolke, Aliakbar Akbarzadeh
Comment: Geothermal will be a large industry eventually and we must control the environmental side effects pollution

4.Efficiency Improvement Using Solar Desiccant Drying For Selected Seeds

Kame Khouzam
Comment:Agricultural applications of solar energy is a potentially large contribution to Climate Change and a betterment of developing countries.

5.  Hybrid Solar Photovoltaic and Water & Waste water Treatment System

M.Vivar, L Kumaresan, V Muugesan, M Lluch, S Iniyan, K Palanivelu, I Skryabin
Comment: Combining waste heat from photvoltaics with waste water treatment will lower fossil fuel use in water conservation as global populations balloon in the next 40 years.

6. Solar Thermal drying of Canarium Indictum Nuts

T Curtis, R Corkish, RJ Fuller
Comment:The availability of better nutrition and food preserving is critical in the developing world.

DO YOU WISH TO BUY ANY OF THESE PAPERS?

A message from AuSES
People who were not delegates at Solar 2010 (or AuSES members) who would like to access this resource they can apply for access for an annual fee of $140 (ex GST). Please go to AuSES website.

Solar-e.com invites you to leave comments on our ranking of Solar Energy Economics Best Papers at the end of this article.

Experts who disagree with our rating and choices we invite you to make comment and if enough substance is shown we will reserve the right to change the ranking at anytime or keep the ranking the same.

Solar-e.com related links:

http://solar-e.com/knowledge/2009/11/30/green-economics
http://solar-e.com/knowledge/2009/11/24/ethical-investment
http://solar-e.com/knowledge/2009/11/30/employment-opportunities
http://solar-e.com/knowledge/2009/11/30/wave-power
http://www.solartec.iinet.net.au/solare/innovation/strategiesindevelopingproducts.htm

AuSES Conference Best Papers: Photovoltaics Best Papers

We have prepared list of solar-e.com’s own selection of ranked candidates for the Photovoltaics best papers presented at the ‘Solar 2010’ Conference: Policies and Strategies (including the Economics of solar energy, diversity of derived forms of solar energy, electricity grids and data collection)

The analysis and understanding the of more obscure fields of solar energy related technology and policy developments is obviously another critical step forward to applying more solar energy in our economy. this section will hopefully expand as more papers are delivered in the future.

AuSES Committee – Best Papers at AuSES Solar 2010 as judged by the AuSES panel

Student Prizes – Wal Read Memorial Prizes
Post Graduates Prizes
BILBAO, Jose “PV-Thermal Water Systems as a Retrofit for Near Zero Energy Homes”
Winner $1500 AUD
BAMBROOK, Shelley “Experimental PVT Air System for Dwellings”
Highly Commended $1000 AUD
LHENDUP, Tshewang “Simulation of a Ground-coupled Heat Pump Combined with Solar Collectors”
Commended $250 AUD
ELLISTON, Ben “Grid parity: A potential misleading concept?”
Commended $250 AUD

Undergraduates Prizes
BRAZIER, Thomas “Dependence of installed cost of a 1.5 kW rooftop PV system on module efficiency”
Joint Winner $1,000 AUD
BOEREMA, Nicholas “Economics of constraints on wind farms – SA”
Joint Winner $1,000 AUD
O’BRIEN, Paul “Exergetic analysis of a steam-flashing thermal storage system”
Joint Winner $1,000 AU

Photovoltaics: Solar-e.com Director Garry Baverstock’s personal selection of the Best Papers

At the conference the papers were presented under a number of category headings such as Built Environment, Wind Power, Photovoltaics, Environmental Benefits, Solar Thermal and Solar Energy Economics. Following is our selection of the worthwhile papers and a ranking based on relevance to world situation on Climate Change, the impact on the increased use of solar energy and the quality of the research as presented in the paper.
The Photovoltaics best papers, in our opinion, have been listed below. This is our opinion, but we are interested in what the solar experts think and any comments are welcome. If we have overlooked a paper or you disagree with our assessment please feel free to offer your opinion. If bona fide it will be published.

A comment by solar-e.com is included after each selection.


1. Investigation of single layers of silicon quantum dots in SiO2 matrix for energy selective contacts in hot carriers solar cells

P.Aliberti, B.P. Veettil, Ruoyu Li, S.K. Shrestha, B. Zhang, A. Hsieh M.A. Green, G.J. Conibeer
Comment: High Quality scientific PV research

2. High Efficiency Flexible Mono-Crystalline Silcon Modules

EA Thomsen, V Everett, A Blakers, M Brauers, E Davies, J Muric-Nesic, C Samundsett, T Ratcliffe, H Zhao, I Skryabin
Comment: This is significant research in the race between polycrystalline and mono-crystalline cells.  Of course the winner will all about area available for collection and the cost of installed PV /sq m.

3. Large Increases in Bulk Lifetime of Commercial Grade CZ Silicon Wafers Through Hydrogenation

Brett Hallam, Ned Western, Stuart Wenham
Comment: High quality research with large potential benefits to PV industry

4.Improved Implied Voc for Commercial Grade Wafers by Rear Surface Passivation in Conjunction with Rear Laser Doping Technique

X. Bai1, A. Sugianto1, S. R. Wenham1 and B. J. Hallam
Comment: High Quality PV research.  Improvement of the efficiency of PV is the main area that will increase the viable use of PV in the built environment and the various agricultural applications

5.Tandem Photoelectrochemical Cell for Direct Water Splitting

Haixiang Zhang 1, Shujuan Huang1, Gavin Conibeer 1
Comment: This PV production of hydrogen could be a potential industry in the secod half of the 21st century or even earlier

6.Third Generation Photovoltaics

Gavin Conibeer
Comment: Good visions for future improvements of PV.

DO YOU WISH TO BUY ANY OF THESE PAPERS?

A message from AuSES
People who were not delegates at Solar 2010 (or AuSES members) who would like to access this resource they can apply for access for an annual fee of $140 (ex GST). Please go to AuSES website.

Solar-e.com invites you to leave comments on our ranking of Solar Energy Economics Best Papers at the end of this article.

Experts who disagree with our rating and choices we invite you to make comment and if enough substance is shown we will reserve the right to change the ranking at anytime or keep the ranking the same.

Solar-e.com related links:

http://solar-e.com/knowledge/2009/11/30/green-economics
http://solar-e.com/knowledge/2009/11/24/ethical-investment
http://solar-e.com/knowledge/2009/11/30/employment-opportunities
http://solar-e.com/knowledge/2009/11/30/wave-power
http://www.solartec.iinet.net.au/solare/innovation/strategiesindevelopingproducts.htm