Passive Solar Building Design

• Aruba Ismail
• Jiayin Li
• Miao Yu
• Muhammad Zeekrya
• Ioannis Peiralis

Most modern buildings perform their heating and cooling using mass-produced appliances or central systems that are placed in the building. These conventional systems rely on mechanical and electrical energy for heating. In the context of these systems, energy conservation simplifies into switching from a reliance on fossil fuels to using renewable energy sources like solar energy. In contrast, passive solar design uses architectural features to allow the transfer of heat into and through a building without relying on any appliance. These changes decrease the reliance on active systems and the energy needed to run them. LEED certifications and benchmarks rely on the amount of energy saved and the reduction in fossil fuel dependence, but passive solar design methods are not often discussed as a solution to this. The group will compile a list of existing passive systems and evaluate their effectiveness in decreasing the reliance on active systems and the associated costs of running them. After this evaluation, the group will design a basic building shell with an emphasis on the passive technology that was determined to be effective.Those systems that can effectively decrease reliance on active heating systems and are not costly will then be implemented in a basic design using Revitt. This 3d model will go through an energy use analysis using Autodesk’s Green Building Studio to determine whether their use is feasible. A cost analysis will then be performed on the building to determine the additional expenses of a passive heating system.