The Solar House: Passive Heating and Cooling

by Daniel D. Chiras. Chelsea Green Publishing Company, White River Junction, VT, 2002. Softcover, $29.95

The Solar House, describes, good passive solar design is a lot more complex. It is also rewarding—passive solar design allows home builders to create highly energy-efficient and comfortable homes. Chiras addresses common problems with passive solar design, such as overglazing, undermassing, and inadequate ventilation—all in a comprehensive how-to guide on solar home design.

Chiras does a good job presenting complex technical issues for a lay audience. The technical details on insulation requirements, overhang length, and thermal-wall sizing are informative and generally well researched. At times, however, his simplified presentation of an issue compromises technical accuracy. For example, he makes the unlikely claim that radiant-floor heating uses 10 to 30% less fuel than baseboard hydronic and forced-air systems, without citing a source. Sidebars and tables throughout provide useful details and make the book easy to skim.

The chapter on backup heating options is particularly comprehensive, explaining benefits and drawbacks to each of a dozen options for home heating. Even those not designing new homes will benefit from reading this chapter, which opens with a table comparing the various alternatives, including conventional furnaces and boilers, as well as fireplaces, masonry heaters, and ground-source heat pumps. Each of these options is discussed in depth with diagrams and photos.

The Solar House is a valuable introduction to passive solar design and to the many other technologies needed to build an energy-efficient home. While the thoughtful and straightforward explanations are useful, the book’s strongest asset is Chiras’s honest and informative opinions and recommendations from his own 30 years of research and work on solar and ecologically sound construction.

– CK