- Bronze
- Hartford Green
- Natural Clay
- White
- Black
- Sandstone
- Mill Aluminum
Clear Anodized, Dark Bronze Anodized, custom color matches, and flouropolymer finishes are available for an additional charge.
Copper, Stainless Steel, and simulated Lead coated Copper cladding options are available for an additional charge.
Actual colors may vary. Color chips are available upon request.
|
| |
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
Passive Heating
Passive Heating by Solar Innovations, Inc.
“Building orientation, insulation, and proper planning all help to control how and where your energy is available.”
Solar Innovation, Inc. conservatories, sunrooms, greenhouses, and fenestration products provide many unique benefits to our customers; extended living space, aesthetic appeal, home value, custom designs and health and wellness. With electricity rates on the rise there’s another Solar Innovations benefit that can truly make the difference: passive solar heating.
Passive solar heating allows customers to design systems which utilize solar energy to create heat as efficiently as possible without any moving parts (pumps, fans, furnaces, or motorized insulation) and can supply heat in nearly any glazed structure.
Heating your building with passive solar requires windows that are sized for the energy needs of the building. The glass square footage can vary from 10%-100% of the floor's area, depending on the location, insulation, shape and orientation of the rest of the building.
Not only are the actual building components vital to solar heating, you can greatly increase your energy efficiency by well designed landscaping. For example deciduous trees to the southeast and southwest of the building will shade in the summer and let the light through in the winter. This does not work to the south, since the trees would have to be too close to the building. Evergreens can be planted for permanent shade to the east and west. The sun is low in the sky at sunrise and sunset, both winter and summer, so the shadows are long and the trees can be farther away.
 |
Another passive solar option to consider is a solar chimney. With a little planning a solar chimney can assist with preventing overheating, ventilation, and cooling, allowing for considerable energy savings.
To gain a better understanding of passive solar design the U.S. Department of Energy has prepared an extremely useful Technology Fact Sheet regarding passive solar design. You can view the fact sheet in .pdf format at the following link.
If you would like to discuss a passive solar application please contact a Solar Innovations® Representative at your earliest convenience.
 |
Tips to achieving passive solar heating benefits:
- The largest amount of glazing should be on the south facing wall of the structure. To provide balanced heating and lighting, passive solar buildings are longer in the east-west direction, to maximize the southern windows. Southern, double-paned windows gain more energy on a winter day than they lose through the glass.
- South facing windows should be large, both for light and winter heat. Incorporating an overhang that shades the windows from direct sunlight in the summer and allows full sunlight to enter in the winter will be most beneficial to the energy flow. Shading of south facing windows is important to prevent overheating in the summer.
- North windows only lose energy in the winter. They can be important for summer ventilation, but they should be small.
 |
 |
 |