The Ellwood House living room did not exist until Perry Ellwood’s 1911 remodeling. After Perry Ellwood inherited the home he remodeled the interior and exterior, drastically altering the home’s appearance. Control mechanisms (such as manual-or-motorized interior insulated drapes, shutters, exterior roll-down shade screens, or retractable awnings) can compensate for differences caused by thermal lag or cloud cover, and help control daily / hourly solar gain requirement variations. In traditional Japanese architecture the Shōji sliding panel doors, with translucent Washi screens, are an original precedent. This means that latitude-specific fixed window overhangs, while important, are not a complete seasonal solar gain control solution. Home automation systems that monitor temperature, sunlight, time of day, and room occupancy can precisely control motorized window-shading-and-insulation devices. Whilst high mounted clerestory window and traditional skylights can introduce daylight in poorly oriented sections of a building, unwanted heat transfer may be hard to control. Most of the buildings built to the Passive House standard also incorporate an active heat recovery ventilation unit with or without a small (typically 1 kW) incorporated heating component. International style, Modernist and Mid-century modern architecture were earlier innovators of this passive penetration and reflection in industrial, commercial, and residential applications. Skylights provide daylight. The only view they provide is essentially straight up in most applications.
GPS-based smartphone applications can now do this inexpensively on a hand held device. Although a catalpa tree can tolerate this, if the caterpillar population isn’t controlled, consecutive generations of larvae can completely rid the tree of leaves and kill it. If tree limbs hang over a roof, they will increase problems with leaves in rain gutters, possibly cause roof-damaging ice dams, shorten roof life, and provide an easier path for pests to enter your attic. However, there is one option to expand your room on a reasonable budget that will almost certainly meet the Calgary building codes easily: a sunroom. As you can see, the ceiling-mounted position is the only possible option here. The dramatic minneapolis deck remodelers seen here fits this plain-Jane description before its remodel. California Redwood Association Encircled by an intimate conversation area, the brick-edged firepit is the focal point of the lower deck yet lies just a few steps below the sheltered spa.
A portfolio of ideas rather than a how-to manual, this article discusses basic deck types and presents a number of deck styles for both contemporary and traditional homes. Other homes are most often sunroom-ready. Flat roofs are also a consideration for modern homes and sunrooms. Although the sun is at the same altitude 6-weeks before and after the solstice, the heating and cooling requirements before and after the solstice are significantly different. Fundamental passive solar hot water heating involves no pumps or anything electrical. The energy design of Passive House buildings is developed using a spreadsheet-based modeling tool called the Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) which is updated periodically. Zero heating building is simpler to design and to operate. Other active solar water heating technologies, etc. may be more appropriate for some locations. With advances in ultra low U-value glazing a Passive House-based (nearly) zero heating building is proposed to supersede the apparently failed nearly-zero energy buildings in EU. Skylights are the antithesis of zero energy building Passive Solar Cooling in climates with an air conditioning requirement. Leaves and twigs on skylights are unappealing, difficult to clean, and can increase the glazing breakage risk in wind storms.
Roof-angled glass increases construction cost, and can increase insurance premiums. To counteract this, you usually must increase the thickness of the glazing or increase the number of structural supports to hold the glazing. When weighing the options of a sunroom addition or large-scale renovation to create an indoor-outdoor space, your architect can help you evaluate a number of nature-focused approaches, which vary from greenhouses and conservatories to full-scale sunrooms or sunspaces. Roof-angled glass and sidewall glass are not recommended for passive solar sunspaces. Reflecting elements, from active and passive daylighting collectors, such as light shelves, lighter wall and floor colors, mirrored wall sections, interior walls with upper glass panels, and clear or translucent glassed hinged doors and sliding glass doors take the captured light and passively reflect it further inside. Other creative solutions involve the use of reflecting surfaces to admit daylight into the interior of a building. The use of landscape design principles for selection of trees, hedges, and trellis-pergola features with vines; all can be used to create summer shading. For example: there is no need for modulated sun shading in zero-heating houses. There is growing momentum in Europe for the approach espoused by the Passive House (Passivhaus in German) Institute in Germany.
