The Solar House. Passive Heating and Cooling

Editorial Review
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.

In "The Solar House," 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 erros and shows how to avoid them. More importantly, Chiras explains in methodical detail how today’s home builders can succeed with solar designs.

Customer Reviews

Gives more detail than other books

2008-02-28
I've read many other green building books. What I liked about this one was that it really goes into the nuts and bolts more - it give more detail than other books including some of Dan Chiras's other books - which I guess makes sense since it is about a limited area/topic.

A Great Reference for building

2007-12-22
This book covers much more than Solar Energy by including many energy saving features to build into a house. I bought a copy for both my Architech and General Contractor.

Good overview of passive solar designs

2007-11-04
Everyone I talked to stated this as the first book someone should read to come up to speed on passive solar designs. And it is a good overview. But only an overview, providing lots of concept and a few "rules of thumb" only. Taken for what it is, this is a very good introduction to passive solar concepts. You'll have to look elsewhere for more detailed information if you plan to participate in the design phase of a passive solar building, or to learn enough to evaluate another's design. There are a few good references in the book to other materials as well.

Amazing book - quite possibly the BEST on solar building

2007-07-13
My copy of this book is a mess. It has highlighting and notes all throughout the pages and looks well worn even though I've only had the book for a year.

When the time came to do some studying on solar design, this was the book that was recommended to me. And for good reason - it packs a wallop and provides SO MUCH great information in its pages. At the time I got the book I was somewhat of a novice to solar building and was concerned that the book would have too much jargon or concepts that I didn't understand, but Chiras does such a great job explaining everything in layman's terms that by the time I finished the book I felt like an expert myself.

I HIGHLY recommend this to ANYone looking to building solar/green. I consider it the best of the bunch.

The Solar House: Passive Heating & Cooling

2007-05-23
This book is excellent and received in great condition. Thank you. - jac

review for the solar house

2007-05-12
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.

Readers will learn:
- How to select a cost-effective, energy-efficient, and environmentally friendly backup heating system.
- how to preserve indoor air quality in an airtight, energy-efficient home.
- ways of employing green building materials in a naturally conditioned home.

very helpful book 2007-03-19
The Solar House presents a detailed overview of passive solar design with specific region-based recommendations. I found that the technical information was well-researched and presented in an accessible way. There is a very helpful section on backup heating systems, which provides a basis for comparing the many options such as conventional gas and oil fired fixtures, radiant floor, masonry stoves, etc. This book should help people to design homes that are very energy efficient and comfortable to live in- the best of both worlds.

I found The Natural House more useful 2007-01-29
While a good book, I found The Natural House more useful for my specific needs. To be honest, we decided not to go with solar power due to the cost (and lack of help with the price where we live, in TN) and due to the topography of our lot. The Natural House provided a great resource for other avenues of eco-friendly options for our new house, including various options for heating and cooling. If you are not sure how you want to heat your house yet and you are looking for more general information, I would recommend getting that book instead.

Really Good, But..... 2006-07-26
This is a book with a good deal of information on solar homes. But the author repeats himself over and over. The book could have been writen in about 70 pages instead of 270 pages. Also the author does not give you all the necessary information that he could. Instead he refers you to different websites throughout the book. Before I read this book I had already done a lot of research on solar houses on the internet, though this does take more time the information was free and covered at least 80% of what is in this book. With a little more research I probably could have found the rest. The book is still a good read though.

Excellent passive solar book 2006-07-09
An excellent passive solar publication that is very complementary to my own book: The Sun-Inspired House: house designs warmed and brightened by the sun. I knew that Dan Chiras had already published an excellent book with passive solar details so one of the goals of The Sun-Inspired House was to show numerous examples of passive solar homes while adding another way to look at passive solar.