Australian Passive Solar Home

In homes in warm climates, western-facing glazing is a big problem in terms of heating the house in the late afternoon via direct sunlight. Our passive solar home has only a single western area of glazing – a door. This is shaded by a small veranda and southern vertical shade panel (yet to be built here). This allows the entrance of winter sun but shades the door from summer sun.

It works like this. Because (here in the southern hemisphere) the summer sun sets much further south of west than the winter sun, a vertical shade panel on the south will shade the door from late afternoon western sun, while the veranda shades the door from western summer sun earlier in the afternoon.

However, in winter, the sun sets in line with the door and so this sun makes its way under the veranda and in through the door. In fact, for a short time, this sunshine shines almost the entire interior length of the house, passing down a hallway. Also, earlier in the afternoon, the winter sunshine’s lower angle in the sky can make its way beneath the veranda, shining in through the door at an angle.

All these sunshine angles are very important if a passive solar house is to work well!