Passive House Seminar

Courtesy of Matthew Engel blog 

Yesterday, I started out on the road at 5am to attend a day-long seminar (presented by HalfMoon Seminars) in Cincy about the green building trend called Passive House that is soon to become much more of a mainstream practice... my prediction. While I could explain to you many of the facts and details about this new green building standard, I prefer to let you know why I am sold. Americans cringe at the idea of having to turn off their lights with hyper-maintenance, to wash our hands with cold water, to freeze during the middle of the night under a down comforter, and to just skimp on the comforts we have grown up with. I am the type of person who loves to skimp and save on energy whenever possible.. but this is just not a realistic expectation for the average American.

Passive Solar Design

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WM. G. Murray Conference Center, Living History Farms, Des Moines, Iowa.

Photo credit: Patsy K. Anderson.

I just completed a CEU course for registered architects related to Passive Solar Design for Design Arts Seminars.

I first saw this building as an elementary school student with my mom, brother, sister, and another mom & her kids. At a young age, I was interested in architecture... and this building was probably the first building to make me think! As a child, I thought it was ridiculous to bury a building or a home... afterall no one could really answer my questions.

In fact, I couldn't have answered any of my questions until I completed this CEU course this week. The biggest discovery I made was that Passive Solar Design is not so complicated and not so expensive... I found that many of the high confluent architecture books are attributed to making passive solar design ethereal and unattainable unless you become a scientiest or an engineer.

Not so, may I recommend Daniel D. Chiras' book, The Solar House: Passive Heating and Cooling? He provides a list of "do's" when designing passive solar homes... which easily translate to passive solar principles for commercial buildings as well.

Passive Solar Design is completely attainable and well worth all the effort... energy savings start out at a minimum of 30% and go all the way up to 80%.

Summer Porches

As an architect, I am beginning this blog to inspire other designers to think in the most creative ways to be green.

Many years ago, homes were built with summer porches. So, in the evenings and for sleeping, the family would camp out on the second floor porch added to the rear end of the home. Besides the exotic aspect of this sleeping arrangement, it was one way to achieve a good night's sleep without sweating like a pig. The natural breezes of the summer night air were unobstructed and the family slept like content babies.

So, no air conditioning for the summer porch family.