First: Orientation
“You don’t need the home to look like one of those passive solar homes from the ’70s or ’80s with the whole wall of glass on the south side,” he says. “People were designing homes with massive amounts of solar gain, so the house would get really hot during the day and then they would freeze at night.”
Thanks to the move toward super-insulated houses, homes can now stay comfortable while gaining a smaller amount of heat. But in order to strike the right balance, Hindle says, the orientation must be thoughtful. At the very least, he says, “go out to the site with your smartphone compass to figure out where south is, and orient your house accordingly.”
But for a better option, he recommends investing in a solar pathfinder analysis, which offers day-by-day specifics on where the sun is in the sky throughout the year, how much solar radiation is hitting the site, and how the site is being affected by shading. With that information, builders can then plan accordingly to ensure the home is getting the proper amount of sunlight during each season, given the local climate.
“The best investment you can make is to hire an energy consultant to come out to the site, advise on the building plan and envelope, and, of course, to educate yourself as a builder,” Hindle says.
