Solar Home Design: The Wave of the Future in Eco-Friendly Home Design?

You might often hear 'solar home design' also described as "passive solar home design." Basically there are two different types of designs being described when you hear the term "solar home design." One is with collectors being added to ferry solar heat to and fro around the house in the form of electrical energy as needed.

Then there is the passive form of solar home design that is also becoming increasingly popular. What is meant by "passive" is that the home can be powered through mostly direct sunlight, requiring very little conversion from sunlight to electricity. This mode is the one that this article is gong to cover.

If a home is set to be designed from a passive solar home design, that means that everything in the home is designed to collect, store, and distribute heat during the winter months, while rejecting it during the summer. This is also often called "climatic" design, and is set up so every window, every sky light, every tone and color of paint is planned out for the maximum efficient effect.

A passive solar home design is one that does not had any need for using pumps, fans, electrical conversion devices, or electrical controls of any kind. Passive solar homes aren't necessarily all from the same cut. There are many different ways to take advantage of the sun's natural energy. Some passive solar homes are heated entirely by the sun, while others will only be partial.

Many of these homes are designed with windows that act like natural sky lights, allowing light to come in early in the morning, and eliminating almost any need for electrical light during the day no matter which room of the house you are in. In a fully passive solar home design there are five main elements that have to be true in each one:

• The Collector
• The Absorber
• Thermal Mass
• Distribution
• Control

These five pieces will determine whether or not the passive solar home design will be fully functional or not. A well built house can literally absorb the heat from the day's sun and keep distributing it throughout the home even when temperatures drop late at night. If you're looking at building a new home and you want it to be green, take a look at solar home designs to find the one right for you.