Passive solar homes range from those heated almost entirely by the sun to those with south facing windows that provide some fraction of the heating load. The difference between a passive solar home and a conventional home is design. And the key is designing a passive solar home to best take advantage of the local [...]
This article is part 1 of Passive Solar Design for the Home.
Your home’s windows, walls, and floors can be designed to collect, store, and distribute solar energy in the form of heat in the winter and reject solar heat in the summer. This is called passive solar design or climatic design because, unlike active [...]
Geothermal heat pumps are one of the most efficient ways to heat and cool a home and provide hot water. More and more homeowners are dis-covering the benefits of these systems, which tap the relatively constant temperature of the Earth a few feet underground, for both new homes and retrofits in existing houses.
Geothermal [...]
This article is part 15 of Buying and Using Renewable Energy at Home.
One of the more challenging ways to use clean energy is in fueling our cars. Advanced transportation technologies—including fuel cells, electric motors, advanced engines, improved materials, and other technologies—aim to reduce pollution and minimize petroleum fuel use in cars, trucks, buses, fleet [...]
This article is part 14 of Buying and Using Renewable Energy at Home.
American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE)
ACEEE is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing energy efficiency as a means of promoting both economic prosperity and environmental protection. ACEEE provides publications and guides on making your home more energy efficient. [...]
Another way to use renewable energy in your home is to use solar energy for water heating. Today’s systems carry a rating that tells you how well they’ll meet your hot water needs. And they provide a clean, reliable, and cost-effective source of hot water.
Solar water heaters can be either active or passive. [...]
This article is part 13 of Buying and Using Renewable Energy at Home.
One of the most energy-efficient options for heating and cooling your home draws on another form of renewable energy—geothermal energy, or heat from the earth. This is not the hot steam and heat that comes from deep underground (discussed here). Rather, geothermal [...]
An architect can examine the energy performance of your house in terms of how each of the components—the insulation, windows, heating and cooling system, ventilation, and lighting— all work together. This approach, called “whole-house” design, allows the architect to optimize each of these components for your location to achieve the best energy [...]
In an existing home, any renovation or window replacement project is an opportunity to improve your home’s energy performance. Most existing homes have poorly insulated, leaky windows that would be cost effective to replace. When replacing windows, consider increasing the windows on the south side of your home and decreasing the windows on the [...]
This article is part 12 of Buying and Using Renewable Energy at Home.
Heating and cooling uses more energy and drains more energy dollars than any other system in your home. Typically, 44% of your utility bill goes for heating and cooling. What’s more, heating and cooling systems in the United States together emit more [...]
