Using Solar Design to Heat & Cool Your Home

James Kachadorian

"The book is suffused with a sensitivity to environmental issues of all sorts, a useful perspective in these resource-limited times. An essentially simple book, elegant in presentation and forceful in argument; recommended for extensive scientific and/or broader home-building collections."

--Library Journal

Finally there is a contemporary book that demonstrates the potential for heating and cooling a home with free energy. This new volume is a welcome addition to the canon of indispensable solar construction books, bringing fully up to date for the 1990s the legendary promise of 1970s-era solar pioneers: the promise of a home that heats and cools itself with minimal use of a back-up furnace.

Whether you are adopting the model developed by Jim Kachadorian or using another designer's layout plan, The Passive Solar House will provide you with pragmatic, immediately applicable solar deign advice that is usable in any region or climate. Information includes:

* Proper siting and strategic window selection and placement

* Energy and money-saving construction tips

* Ideal air-exchange rates, and ways to avoid overheating

* Methods for gauging and maximizing thermal mass

* Criteria for sizing of back-up heating systems

* Interior design for year-round comfort

This book is brimful of worthwhile, constructive how-to advice, and gives readers the basis for understanding the hows and whys of solar design, including a succinct presentation of ten key solar-design principles that have defined and guided solar architecture for thousands of years.

Author Jim Kachadorian, an entrepreneur who has built over 300 passive solar homes, also responds inventively to the most common fears of those considering a solar home: that the house will be too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter, or that it will be ugly and experimental-looking, or expensive to build because of extra gadgets and supplies. The Passive Solar House delivers the message that a successful solar design need not require any additional financial outlays, just good planning and savvy choice of materials. whether you are a younger person eager to go "back to basics" or a seasoned homeowner wanting to create a retirement residence that requires little or no effort to heat, The Passive Solar House is a great place to start the planning process.

About the Author

James Kachadorian is a civil engineer with degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T) and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He is the founder of Green Mountain Homes, a company which gained national recognition as the first provider of innovative, manufactured solar homes. He has built more than 300 passive solar homes. Kachadorian resides in Woodstock, Vermont.