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Your Home is a Solar Home

Most people think of solar panel systems on roofs when you mention the word solar in relation to their home. In truth, any home with windows is using solar energy and it’s easy, free energy to boot. Now most are not using it well and that is why I’m writing this article.

So even though you may not realize it, you live in a solar home. In fact, every home you’ve lived in was powered with solar in one form or another. This whole idea is known as passive solar and it can be used to save you a lot of money on your utilities bills.

Every home has a room or rooms that get warmed by the sun during the day. Sometimes they get a lot hotter then we are comfortable with. These hot rooms, of course, are usually on the south and west sides of the house at least here in North America, and are in the sun all day. This energy from the sun is essentially a nuclear reactor and the power it produces is immense. When the sun hits a room it can heat up significantly within 30 minutes. With some thought and effort you can use this power to heat your home in what is called a passive way. Many people just don’t know how they can tap this energy, in order to save themselves a ton of money on their energy bills.

But the sunlight really is very easy to put to work in your home. When you want heat, let it in. When you don’t, block it out. When sun energy enters an area through a window, that area will heat up and that area is called an isolated gain location. For instance, if you have light shinning through the window of any room and if you close the door to that room it will heat up and that will make that room an isolated gain area.

There are two excellent ways to put this to your use.

1: By tracking the path of the sun you can use the sunlight to passively heat your home by adding isolated gain areas that follow the suns path. The heat will even itself out through your home as the heat rises and circulates. In this way if a home has isolated access areas that track the path of the sun, you can gain free heat throughout the day. Most homes have windows along the side walls of the house, but miss out on one of the best ways of letting the sun into their home and that is through the roof. Skylights are one of the best ways to add heating to your home and they are not that expensive to install either.

2: A second method for turning the sunlight into heat involves collecting the heat through different materials. Certain materials like brick, concrete and stone take longer to heat up in the sun, but also will generate heat longer once the sun has set. This is known as using thermal mass to heat your home. Masonry materials universally collect and hold energy from the sun and can be used for flooring materials below a window, or walls or fireplaces etc. These materials will heat up throughout the day and once the sun sets, the materials will continue to heat your home for hours. Just think about to how long your fireplace continues to radiate heat after the fire has gone out.

Passively heating your home using the sun’s energy will never replace the need for utilities. However, minor home improvements can help create heat during the day and not only make your home more comfortable but save you money as well.

23 June 2009 comments [35] TrackBack-URI

35 comments

1. Michael posted on June 26, 2009:

   You have a great site here I am wanting to be more green in the way I live.

   Have you seen this news article?
   New details about Michael Jackson’s Death Emerge
   I was wondering if you were going to blog about this…

2. How I Make $300 a Day Posting Links Online posted on June 30, 2009:

   Cool post, just subscribed.

3. Hetermine posted on July 2, 2009:

   I did not know this thanks

4. Hyde posted on July 3, 2009:

   I never thought of it this way before. It is good to look at things through different eyes.

5. Ben posted on July 4, 2009:

   I had never thought of it that way before.

6. Avery posted on July 5, 2009:

   This is good I never thought of it this way before either.

7. Detts posted on July 6, 2009:

   Good article now I just have to start putting things into practice.

8. Flori posted on July 7, 2009:

   I did not know this thanks for the info.

9. Andy posted on July 8, 2009:

   This is really interesting. I never looked at it that way before.

10. Lisy posted on July 9, 2009:

    I am not sure what to do with this article? I’ll have to think on it.

11. Hydie posted on July 10, 2009:

    I never thought of it this way but you are right.

12. Bama posted on July 11, 2009:

    I thought you would have to do more than that.

13. Sidof posted on July 12, 2009:

    I hear what you have to say but I think we need to do more if we really want to call our home solar.

14. Urma posted on July 13, 2009:

    this is an interesting article I like what you have to say.

15. Anax posted on July 14, 2009:

    I never though of it this way before thanks

16. mini posted on July 15, 2009:

    I don’t think my home is a solar home or at least you would have to do some convincing on that.

17. Oycon posted on July 16, 2009:

    Never thought of it this way before. I will have to take better advantage of it.

18. Pinical posted on July 17, 2009:

    I am not sure what to do with this article.

19. Accii posted on July 18, 2009:

    I would like to do more than just the passive solar. do you have something on that.

20. Bram posted on July 19, 2009:

    You may be right but I think there is more to it than that.

21. Traction posted on July 21, 2009:

    thanks for your blog and how it is helping us all do a better part for the world.

22. Ulman posted on July 22, 2009:

    Passive solar is good but it isn’t that good. We all need to do more.

23. Terry posted on July 24, 2009:

    Having a solar home is something a lot more than this but I get your point.

24. Vicky posted on July 25, 2009:

    A solar home is something entirely different as far as I’m concerned.

25. Cody posted on July 26, 2009:

    When you truely want to go solar you have to do more than what you are taking about.

26. Expired posted on July 27, 2009:

    I think you are wet behind the ears.

27. Boya posted on August 2, 2009:

    this is a crazy article you’ll have to do some more convincing on me.

28. Mad posted on August 5, 2009:

    Good blog good content

29. vision posted on August 7, 2009:

    This sounds crazy but I do understand what you are saying.

30. Mada posted on August 9, 2009:

    Solar means something quite else to me but I do understand passive solar.

31. Prese posted on August 10, 2009:

    I think you have a lot of good things to say here. great job

32. Don posted on August 14, 2009:

    I would like a good solar home but I can’t see mine being one.

33. Tim posted on August 17, 2009:

    I am thinking this is a bit of a stretch but I understand the possibilities.

34. Jenile. posted on August 19, 2009:

    Having a real solar home would be wonderful in my opinion.

35. Bill posted on August 21, 2009:

    My hope is to have a truely solar home in the near future.

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