One of the fascinating things behind the statistics to running a blog is the search items people use to end up here at isite.

Still by a large margin is the search for a good construction carbon calculator.  However coming up fast on the inside, is the search of things solar relating to energy and building design.  This has led to me to brush up on my knowledge – and found this fascinating wikipedia entry. Passive solar building design

 Passive solar building design involves the modeling, selection and use of appropriate passive solar technologies to maintain the building environment at a desired temperature range (usually based around human thermal comfort) throughout the sun’s daily and annual cycles. As a result it generally minimizes the use of active solar, renewable energy and especially fossil fuel technologies.

I would add into this the passive solar lighting concepts of sun-pipes, light tubes and wind pipes which we use to great effect here.  Having daylight and fresh air into the middle of the house is wonderful – and saves on lighting energy and costs, even on overcast days.