Once called Solar Homes, passive solar design has been around for thousands of years.

Neolithic Chinese home builders originated much of the passive solar heating techniques we still use today. First, they placed home entrances facing south, (from the northern hemisphere) so the interior of the homes could be warmed during the winter by the low-angled sun. To keep the house cooler in the summer, they also elongated roof eaves so they overhang above the opening and block the hot summer sunlight from entering the home. A few thousand years after, the ancient Greeks came upon the same solutions. They built south-facing homes and even created east-west roads so that all homes could benefit from solar heating.

Socrates himself shouted the benefits of passive solar heating to all who would listen, explaining to his students the principles behind the same solar heating techniques the Neolithic Chinese used:

“Now in houses with a southern orientation, the sun’s rays penetrate into the porticoes, but in summer the path of the sun is right over our heads and above the roof, so we have shade.”

Thinking about maximising solar gain was an idea that originated with the modernists in the 1940s and 50s but became popular in the 1970s as the issue of oil shortages first became a consideration in global development.  Dozens of pattern books were published in this period, including the Passive Solar Energy Book by Edward Mazria. Since readily available fossil fuels had helped drive the residential and industrial building scene for a few generations, there had been little interest in looking to cut costs of construction, or cut the costs of living in a home when external energy (largely gas) was so readily available and cheap.

As we discussed in a previous post, the idea ‘passive’ design means taking advantage of what is available, that being: your local climate, to maintain a more comfortable temperature range in the home. Designing your home as a vessel to take advantage of the free (and passive) heat from sun in winter, provide shading to exclude the hot sun in summer, and use the wind for cooling with cross-ventilation means you can avoid drawing on an ‘active’ (and carbon intensive) mechanical system of additional heating/cooling for the building.

John Barker has created this great video that retraces the history of energy conservation from the 1960s, passive solar house design from the 1970s, the books and ideas that influenced the thinking of those moving forward professionally, and the consolidation of the industry standards through the 1990s. Originally these building were called ‘solar homes’ and were often experimental in what sorts of materials were used.  A celebrated building that was developed by the early pioneers of the Alternative Technology Association coming out of Melbourne, known as the Solar Workshop, recently burnt down due to arson but had been one of the earliest examples of passive solar design using bluestone in Melbourne. As one article written by Mick Harris, one of the founders of the ATA wrote

“In those days solar panels weren’t powerful enough to run anything, Solar referred to passive solar design and solar hot water.” They started building with volunteer labour and a budget of about $11,000.”

Today organisations such as the Green Building Institute, which is a non-profit organisation that provides training for sustainable construction and green building consultants across the country gives lessons on understanding passive solar design. There is a great demand for education and training of trades people and property professionals to help them understand and develop effective construction technology, methods, and design. Passive solar design forms one of the components of their training and you can watch a video on their site here.