Anastasio Design

using passive solar design along with integrated living® concepts to enhance your home or business

Incorporating passive solar design into your addition or remodel will lower your heating and cooling bill and save the environment.

Passive solar applications, when included in initial building design, add little or nothing to the cost of a building. Existing buildings can be adapted or "retrofitted" to passively collect and store solar heat.

The most common passive solar system is called direct gain.  Direct gain refers to the sunlight that enters a building through windows, warming the interior space.  During the sunlight hours, this heat can be stored in thermal mass incorporated into floors or interior walls made of adobe, brick, concrete, stone, or water.  The heat held by the thermal mass will continue to radiate into the space after the sun goes down.
[Read more about Passive Solar...]   [Read more about Integrated Living®...]

"There is nothing more active than a Passive Solar building. Architecturally speaking, a building designed to harvest and produce the sun's energy provides the most natural environment for human living"  - Howard Allen

"Now in houses with a south aspect, the sun's rays penetrate into the porticos in winter, but in the summer, the path of the sun is right over our heads and  above the roof, so that there is shade. If then this is the best arrangement, we should build the south side loftier to get the winter sun and the north side lower to keep out the winter winds. To put it shortly, the house in which the owner can find a pleasant retreat at all seasons and can store his belongings safely is presumably at once the pleasantest and the most beautiful." - Socrates - 391 B.C.

"Only primitives & barbarians lack knowledge of houses turned to face the Winter sun." - Aeschylus - 500 B.C.

 

What are the benefits of passive solar?

  • Saving money. Depending on your needs and the design, you can save from 67% to 100% of your winter heating bill and enjoy natural cooling in the summer.
  • Saving even more money in the future.. Does anybody believe the cost of natural gas or electricty will go down?
  • Saving the environment. A natural gas furnance for a 1000 SF addition will add 18,976 pounds of CO2 annually to the atmosphere.
  • Living with the natural rhythm of the changing seasons.
  • Increasing comfort. Warmer in winter, cooler in summer, even during a power failure.
  • Turning your home into a sacred space.
  • Enjoying silence. No operating noise.  
  • Seeing out. Seeing in. An attractive living environment with large windows and views, sunny interiors and open floor plans.
  • High resale value
  • High owner satisfaction
  • No maintenance.
  • Reliability. Operates even during a power failure or if you take a trip.
  • Complying with the new energy efficiency and sustainability regulations.

    • Want to know more about Passive Solar? Click Here...

other services offered by ad

  • Permitting -complying with government regulations.
  • Drafting -computer aided design for your projects.
  • Calculating energy and sustainibility parameters
  • Documenting existing homes for posterity
  • Designing bicycle infrastrature
  • Designing sacred spaces for your home
  • Designing sacred spaces for yoga and dance studio

    • In detail...

Energy Calcs