Heating, Cooling, Lighting: Design Methods for Architects, 2nd Edition

by Norbert Lechner, 2001. John Wiley & Sons, New York. Hardcover, 640 pages, $85

Heating, Cooling, Lighting is one of the most useful and important books on building design in the last ten years. The book is not inexpensive, but it’s worth every penny. Norbert Lechner, an architecture professor at Auburn University, has done a remarkable job at amassing a veritable encyclopedia of information on the entire spectrum of issues affecting energy use in buildings. The book applies to both commercial and residential buildings—though to varying degrees. Some chapters are most relevant to houses, while others apply only to commercial buildings.

Heating, Cooling, Lighting is the strong emphasis throughout the book on building

design issues, as opposed to mechanical and electrical solutions. Indeed, it is telling that out of 17 chapters in this book, only two deal with what one might expect to be the primary content of the book: mechanical systems for heating and cooling, and electric lighting. The vast majority of the book addresses issues that should be of primary importance to architects: basic principles of energy and comfort; climate as it relates to building design; solar geometry and its use in passive solar design and cooling load avoidance; natural ventilation; site design as it relates to solar access and ventilative cooling; daylighting; building envelope and glazing design; and case studies of a handful of premier examples of high-performance buildings. While all chapters have been significantly updated from the first edition, substantial new material has been added on sustainable design and photovoltaics.

Lechner uses a three-tier, pyramid approach throughout the book in addressing building design, with coverage of each tier proportional to its importance to architects. The largest, most important tier deals with basic building design; the second tier deals with passive systems; and the third tier with mechanical or electrical systems. In each chapter, Lechner explains which of these three tiers is primarily being addressed (see figure).

Some of the design information, particularly relating to passive solar energy, appears a little dated—though that may reflect the fact that not all that much has changed regarding basic passive solar principles. Those who were involved with passive solar energy in the 1970s and ’80s will recognize many of the buildings used as examples. But generally, the technical information throughout the book is highly up-to-date and accurate. Even someone who keeps up with developments in building technology is sure to pick up a lot. In the chapter on electric lighting, for example, such leading-edge technologies as fiber-optic lighting and light-emitting polymer lamps (a development beyond even LED lighting) are addressed.

While the building design and energy technology information in

Heating, Cooling, Lighting will provide a superb reference in the

EBN office (as it should in any design firm), almost as valuable will be the coverage of building science and thermodynamics. Nowhere else have we seen such clear explanations of energy flow mechanisms that occur in buildings. Take our word for it, this book is a must for any design firm.

– AW