Harvesting Sunlight

As I write this I’m sitting in my house it’s late morning on the 7th of November and the kitchen is 22.5 degrees centigrade (71 Fahrenheit). Outside it’s 4 degrees. The only source of heat apart from a tiny amount of my own body heat and the waste heat from the computer I’m typing on, is the sunlight streaming through the windows.

11am November 7th

Our house is only 800 sq foot and well insulated. Most of the glass in the building is in the south gable and when we layed out the building we orientated it to maximise solar gain.

A lot of winter days in this part of the world are like today, under clear skys the nights are frosty and the days are sunny. By harvesting sunlight with a passive solar design, we do not need to light the stove until dark. By the time the stove is lit the house will still be over 20 degrees and a little firewood will keep it warm at night.

If you have already built your house it maybe possible to add some kind of passive solar collection, like a sunroom. If you are thinking of building a new house, think seriously about making you house a passive solar building. Space heating is expensive but sunlight is free.

Passive Solar Design

Solar Gain