Cooling
Awning or Canopy
The most common and effective way to cool a home is by preventing the sun from
hitting the window. Installing an awning or canopy is the most common way.
Trees
can provide shade to cool the house when needed, but need the sunlight
go through during the heating period. Even
deciduous trees that loose their leaves in the winter obstruct the sun. Unless
deciduous trees on the south side of a passive solar home are located close to
the house and the lower branches are removed, they will obstruct the sun. Trees,
shrubbery and grass provide not only shade, they also can cool the air surrounding
a home by as much as 9°F by the process called "transpiration". This is why rural
areas with a lot of trees are usually cooler than urban settings. Cooling for
a house is best done with deciduous trees. On the east and west sides of a house
the sun strikes from a low angle early and late in the day, so it's best to plant
bushes, smaller trees or evergreens, such as pines and spruces, there. On the
south side of a home, however, it is best to have high-crowned deciduous trees
that grow tall with few low branches. In the summer they shade the roof and south-facing
wall. When they lose their leaves in the fall, they permit sunlight onto south-facing
windows for solar gain.
An Earth-Shelter Home is the ideal home from an energy efficiency standpoint.
-Walls have minimal exposure to extreme temperatures.
-The deeper in the ground, the more stable the temperatures.
-Most ES homes are built of 12" concrete walls for heat storage.
A radiant
heat barrier, usually aluminum foil coated to a reinforcing material,
in the attic can block the flow of radiant heat from the roof to the ceiling.
-A radiant heat barrier reflects radiant heat and does not emit it from its surface
when its temperature increases.
-The foil is stapled to the underside of the roof or along the rafters, with the
shiny side facing down. It will not emit radiant heat from its surface. The facing
air space must be at least an inch deep.