ENERGY EFFICIENT ARCHITECTURE

UNIT 2
ADVANCED PASSIVE ARCHITECTURE – PASSIVE HEATING
 Passive solar heating , Passive solar heating systems - Direct gain system
-Indirect gain system - Isolated gain system

-Ar. Md Muthahar

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1. PASSIVE SOLAR HEATING

Passive solar design uses sunshine to heat and light homes and other buildings without
mechanical or electrical devices.
Heating the building through the use of solar energy involves the absorption and storage
of incoming solar radiation, which is then used to meet the heating requirements of
the space.

PASSIVE SOLAR HEATING IS DEFINED AS USING SOLAR ENERGY INCIDENT ON

WINDOWS, SKYLIGHTS, GREENHOUSES, IN ORDER TO PROVIDE HEATING FOR A
BUILDING.

Generally such solar collection occurs passively, without the extensive use of pumps or
fans typically used in active solar collector systems.

However, the distribution of the energy collected sometimes uses small fans to
redistribute the energy throughout the house. Because heating is needed only over the
colder part of the year. Energy Efficient Architecture 2
2. PASSIVE SOLAR HEATING SYSTEMS

Advanced passive heating techniques used by architects in building design to

achieve thermal comfort conditions in cold climate.

Passive solar heating systems can be broadly classified as:

- Direct gain system: Solar radiation that directly penetrates and is stored in the
living space.

- Indirect gain system: collects, stores, and distributes solar radiation using some
thermal storage material.

- Isolated gain system: collect solar radiation in an area that can be selectively
closed off or opened to the rest of the house.

Passive solar heating works better in smaller buildings where the envelope design
controls the energy demand. Energy Efficient Architecture 3
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 PASSIVE SOLAR HEATING

INDIRECT GAIN ISOLATEDGAIN

DIRECT GAIN

1. TROMBE WALL THERMAL STORAGE 1. SUNSPACE

1. WINDOWS 2. WATER WALL OF WALLS 2. ROOF RADIATION
2. CLEAR STOREY 3. SURFACE FINISH THERMAL STORAGE TRAP
4. ROOF POND OF ROOF 3. GREENHOUSE.
5. CONVECTIVE AIR LOOP

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DIRECT GAIN
• The direct gain is the most common passive solar system in architecture.

• Direct gain is the simplest approach and usually the most economical to build.

• With this system, sunlight enters the house through large areas of south-facing glass.

• It heats the floor and walls directly. Energy from the mass in floors and walls is released
to the living space when the inside air temperature is lower than that of the mass.

• With the direct gain system, the thermal storage mass may be thinner and more widely
distributed in the living space than with other passive systems.

• Direct gain system uses 60% - 75% of solar energy striking the window.

• Direct gain can be achieved by various forms of openings such as Windows, glazed walls,
clerestories and skylight windows.

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DIRECT GAIN - GLAZING

• Glazing systems should be located on southern side to maximize sunlight in winter.

• Glazing systems should be double glazed with insulating curtains to reduce heat loss.
• South facing glass allows solar energy into building, where it strikes thermal storage
materials such as floors or walls made of adobe, brick, concrete, stone or water.

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DIRECT GAIN – DIFFUSED GLAZING

• The masonry heating problem can be alleviated by using a glazing material that
scatters sunlight so that it is more evenly distributed over walls, ceiling, and floor
storage masses.

• This decreases the intensity of rays reaching any single surface but does not reduce
the amount of solar energy entering the space.

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DIRECT GAIN - CLERESTORY
• Clerestory windows and skylights are sometimes used to increase the amount of
sunlight hitting the back area of walls or floors.

• Skylights, however, tend to create overheating problems in the summer and may leak if
improperly installed.

• Clerestory windows in a direct gain system let sunlight strike the thermal mass on the
back wall.

• Excellent for bringing daylighting to northern spaces (deep houses).

• Can use north wall masonry heat storage.

• Overhang over clerestory window shades in summer.

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DIRECT GAIN
Advantages
 It is comparatively low in cost to build, since no special room has to be added. The floor,
walls, or even an inside-wall fireplace can serve as the storage mass. The solar elements
are incorporated into the living space.
 It provides direct heating. There is no need to transfer energy from one area to another.
 The number and size of south-facing windows can be adjusted to match the space you
have for thermal mass.

Disadvantages of the Direct Gain System:

 It can overheat if the windows and thermal mass are not balanced.
 Large amounts of south-facing glass can cause problems with glare and privacy.
 The thermal mass used for heat storage should not be covered by carpet or blocked by
furnishings.
 Furnishings and fabrics exposed to ultraviolet radiation from the sun can degrade or
change color.
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DIRECT GAIN SYSTEM RULES OF THUMB
 A heat load analysis of the house should be conducted.
 Do not exceed 6 inches of thickness in thermal mass materials.
 Do not cover thermal mass floors with wall to wall carpeting; keep as bare as
functionally and aesthetically possible.
 Use a medium dark color for masonry floors; use light colors for other lightweight
walls; thermal mass walls can be any color.
 For every square foot of south glass, use 150 pounds of masonry or 4 gallons of
water for thermal mass.
 Fill the cavities of any concrete block used as thermal storage with concrete.
 Use thermal mass at less thickness throughout the living space rather than a
concentrated area of thicker mass.
 The surface area of mass exposed to direct sunlight should be 9 times the area of the
glazing.
Sun tempering is the use of direct gain without added thermal mass. For most homes,
multiply the house square footage by 0.08 to determine the amount of south facing
glass for sun tempering.
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INDIRECT GAIN
• In an indirect gain system, thermal mass is located between the sun and the living
space. The thermal mass absorbs the sunlight that strikes it and transfers it to the
living space by conduction.
• Indirect gain system uses 30 – 45% of sun’s energy striking the glass adjoining thermal
mass.
INDIRECT GAIN- TROMBE WALL
• A Trombe wall is a system for indirect solar heat gain.

• It consists of a dark colored wall of high thermal mass facing the sun, with glazing
spaced in front to leave a small air space. The glazing traps solar radiation like a small
greenhouse. An attached sunspace is essentially a Trombe wall where the air space is so
big it is habitable.

• A single or double layer of glass is mounted and the air gap between the wall and glazing
is 50-150mm, and the total area of each row of vent is about 1% of the storage wall
area. The trombe wall should be adequately shaded for reducing summer gains.

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A vented Trombe wall heats air convectively as well as heating the space radiatively.

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Vents can be shut at night to keep the convection loop moving the right direction.
• Trombe walls are thermal storage walls, named after the French inventor Felix Trombe.
• A typical Trombe wall consists of a 20 - 40cm (8" - 16") thick masonry wall painted a dark,
heat-absorbing color and faced with a single or double layer of glass. The glass is placed
between 2 - 15cm (1" - 6") away from the masonry wall to create a small airspace.
• Heat from sunlight passing through the glass is absorbed by the dark surface, stored in the
wall, and conducted slowly inward through the masonry.
• A trombe wall is a thermally massive wall with vents provided at the top and bottom.

• It may be made of concrete, masonry, adobe, and is usually located on the southern side
(in the northern hemisphere) of a building in order to maximize solar gains.
• Solar radiation is absorbed by the wall during the day and stored as sensible heat.
• The air in the space between the glazing and the wall gets heated up and enters the living
spaces by convection through the vents.
• Cool air from the rooms replaces this air, thus setting up a convection current.
• At night the vents can be closed to keep cold air out and the interior space is then heated
by the storage mass, which gives up its heat by radiation as the room cools.

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INDIRECT GAIN - WATERWALL

• Water contained within plastic or metal containment and placed in the direct path of
the sun's rays has the advantage of heating more quickly and more evenly than
masonry walls during the convection process.
• The convection process also prevents surface temperatures from becoming too
extreme as they sometimes do when dark colored masonry surfaces receive direct
sunlight.

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WATER WALLS

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INDIRECT GAIN - ROOF

• Incident solar radiation is trapped by roof and used for interior spaces.

• In northern hemisphere, the system usually has inclined south faced glazing and a north
sloping insulated surface on the roof. Between the roof and insulation an air pocket is
formed which is heated by solar radiation.

• A movable insulation can be used to reduce heat loss through glazed panes during night.

INDIRECT GAIN – ROOF POND.

• The roof pond systems requires a body of water to be located in the roof, protected and
controlled by exterior movable insulation.

• This body of water is exposed to direct solar gain, which it absorbs and stores. Since
thermal storage is the ceiling of the building, it will radiate uniform low-temperature
heat to the entire layout .

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ROOF POND
A special system works with a layer of bags (15-20 cm) containing water that are placed on the roof
and are covered with movable insulating panels (5-10 cm), which appear to regulate the internal
temperature at comfort level.

In winter, these panels are

opened during the day to allow
the bags to absorb heat from
solar radiation and to allow heat
to be stored, while at night the
insulation panels are closed to
insulate the bags from outside
cold

In summer, these panels are

closed during the day to insulate
the bags from solar radiation
and to allow heat to be drawn
from inside, while at night the
insulation is removed to allow
the water to radiate heat to the
night sky.

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ISOLATED GAIN

• In isolated gain system, the solar radiation absorption and storage are thermally
isolated from the main living space of the building.
• The doors or windows between the sunspace and the building are opened during the
day to circulate collected heat, and then closed at night, allowing the temperature in
the sunspace to drop.
• The isolated gain system will utilize 15 – 30% of the sunlight striking the glazing
toward heating the adjoining living areas.

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ISOLATED GAIN-SUNSPACE 0r SOLARIUM
• Attached sunspaces (also called
"conservatories") work much like
vented Trombe walls.

• They can heat spaces both

through radiation and
convection.

• The difference is that the space

between the glass and the
thermal mass creates a habitable
space.

• Sunrooms (or solar

greenhouses) employ a
combination of direct gain and
indirect gain system features.
• Sunlight entering the sunroom is
retained in the thermal mass
and air of the room.
Energy Efficient is built into the house.
A sunspace with vents for convective heating as well
as radiative heating
• Heat can be released from the storage area either
by opening vents that access the storage by
mechanical means (fans), or by conduction if the
storageArchitecture
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ISOLATED GAIN-SUNSPACE

• Night time heat loss is not as

critical in a sunspace as in
direct gain systems, since the
room can be closed off from
the rest of the building.

• However, night insulation or

double-glazing is
recommended if the sunspace
serves as living space after
sundown.
The same sunspace at night, with vents closed, to keep
convection going the proper direction

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• The solar radiation heats up the sun space directly, which in turn heats up the living
space (separated from the sun space by a mass wall) by convection and conduction
through the mass wall.

• In the northern hemisphere, the basic requirements of buildings heated by sun space
are (a) a glazed south facing collector space and (b) living space separated from the sun
space by a thermal storage wall.

• Sunspaces may be used as winter gardens adjacent to the living space.

• Example: Himurja office building, Shimla.

• Pasive heating systems used in this building are as follows:
 Solarium on south wall to maximize solar gain.

 Air heating panels to provide heat gain through a close connective loop on south side.
During winter, the distrubution of heat gain is achived through loop utilizing stairwell as
a means of distributing heated air through principle of buoyancy.

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ISOLATED GAIN-ROOF RADIATION TRAP

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• The glazing on the roof is tilted to maximize winter collection at any latitude (Tilt
= latitude + 15 degrees). After passing through the glazing, the solar radiation is
absorbed by the black painted concrete ceiling slab. The building is heated by
radiation from the ceiling.
• The sloped roof is well insulated and a movable shutter can reduce heat loss
through the glass at night.

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CASE STUDY -1 – HIMURJA OFFICE, SHIMLA - ISOLATED HEAT GAIN- SOLARIUM

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DESIGN FEATURES:
Siting and orientation:
• The building is set into the slope of the site and the orientation provides maximum
exposure to the south side.

Thermal Strategy:
• Coupling the ground and first fioor with the earth prevents heat loss to a great extent.
• With most openings on the south and west facades, the building maximises solar gain.
• The plan of the building and its three dimensional form allow maximum penetration of
sun maximising both solar heat gain and daylight.
• The judiciously designed thermal mass absorbs and provides heat in the spaces
throughout the day.
• Air heating panels designed as an integral part of the southern wall panels provide
effective heat gain.
• Distribution of heat gain in the entire building is achieved through a connective loop.

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Ventilation:
• To optimize ventilation during summer, the connective loop is coupled with solar'
chimneys designed as an integral part of the roof.

Buffer spaces:
• A solarium (sunspace) is built as an integral part of the southern wall maximising heat
gain.

Daylight design:
• Distribution of daylight in spaces is achieved through careful integration of window and
light shelves.
• Light reflected off the light shelves is distributed into the deep plan of the building by
designing a ceiling profile that provides effective reflectivity.
• Artificial lighting is seldom required (except during dark sky conditions sometimes in
winters) in the south oriented spaces, which are well day-lit during working hours.
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Insulation:
• Good insulation of 5 cm thick glass wool in RCC diaphragm walls prevents heat loss.
• Infiltration losses are minimised through weather-proofed (with no thermal bridges)
hard plastic windows.
• Double glazing helps control heat loss from glazing without creating any internal
condensation.

• Renewable energy system's:

• The photovoltaic system of 1.5 kWp meets the energy demand for lighting' whenever
required. 'Roof-mounted solar water system (1000 litre per day) has been used in the
building.
• The water is circulated through radiators' for space heating especially in the northern
spaces.

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 FEW CASE STUDIES TO LEARN FROM – PASSIVE APPROACHES

1. PUNJAB ENERGY DEVELOPMENT AGENCY- SOLAR PASSIVE COMPLEX

2. HIMACHAL PRADESH STATE CO OPERATIVE BANK.

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THANK YOU

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