

Passive solar glass home: watching the sun move - kirstendirksen
http://faircompanies.com/videos/view/passive-solar-glass-home-watching-sun-move/

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jbrun
If you are keen on this, see Amory Lovins talk on buildings: Short version:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvmHJNeif24> Long Version:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5txQlEI7bc&feature=chann...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5txQlEI7bc&feature=channel)

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electromagnetic
Rather impressive, but genuinely simple. He maximized sunlight in the winter
while minimising it in the summer and increased the buildings connection to
the earth below frost level where the ground stays a constant 14C/57F year
round.

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timmaah
My dad built the house I grew up in like this in the mid 70's. Big south
facing windows with large overhang. Brick wall sucks up the heat for the
night. Our greenhouse had huge 20ft high cylinders filled with dyed black
water. Worked great.

What happened in the 80s and 90s to make this not as popular?

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kirstendirksen
Passive solar used to be the way everyone built... at least before way back
with the Ancient Greeks and Chinese. But when we stopped relying on sun for
energy, most of us stopped building this way.

I would guess passive solar gained popularity in the seventies due to more
attention to energy conservation (oil crisis and all) and then when oil got
cheap again, it wasn't so trendy. Hope that's not that case now.

Though cheap oil and global warming aside, I'd still prefer to live in a home
heated by the sun and cooled by the earth. AC gives me a headache and I much
prefer the feel of sun through a window than the blast of central heating.

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kjell
Earthships are worth a look for anyone who wonders why the average modern
house is so wasteful.

