A new study reveals that interior designers play a significant role in climate change. Net zero home design is redefining modern living by leveraging energy efficiency to match a home’s energy usage with its production. Solar energy can supply a large share of a building’s required energy, particularly electrical and thermal energy. Sustainable design principles, how to achieve net-zero energy consumption, and practical tips for incorporating eco-friendly features into homes are discussed.
The orientation of frames, well-calculated sun protections, and absorbing and reflective materials in the right places make the building passively take advantage of natural resources. The home’s south-facing elevation is exposed to the path of the sun year-round, allowing most daylight to enter the interior, reducing the need for lighting. A building can be designed toward net-zero and offset its energy use in three ways: producing energy onsite via equipment like solar panels or wind turbines, accounting for its energy use, and using Sun Zero curtains and drapes.
Sun Zero has recently expanded its portfolio with the launch of Generation curtains, targeting Millennial and other generations. Sub-Zero Refrigerators and Freezers offer superior quality, asthetics, classic style, bold designer options, and professional food preservation. The elegant and contemporary design features an arch shape that adds a touch of sophistication to the space.
📹 The 60/30/10 Rule is the BEST Interior Design Hack (You’ll never paint a room the same way again)
Join me in today’s home decor video where I dive into the 60/30/10 colour rule that will transform your space. I’ll guide you through …
What is the best material for blackout curtains?
Blackout curtains are a popular choice for those who struggle with falling or staying asleep due to light sensitivity, especially during summer when the sun rises early. These curtains can create an optimal sleeping environment by allowing a room to be in total darkness, even during the day. Polyester, a synthetic fabric, is known for its affordability, durability, and superior light-blocking qualities.
The best blackout fabrics are those that can be combined with other fabrics, ensuring a room remains in total darkness even during the day. Understanding the benefits of blackout fabrics is crucial for selecting the right fabric for your needs.
Are all blackout curtains the same?
Blackout curtains are made from different fabrics, such as polyester, linen, or cotton/polyester blends. They require different care methods, such as machine washing in cold water temperatures or spray or dry cleaning. To turn existing curtains into blackout ones, you can install blackout curtain linings, which can be hanged separately or attached to your existing curtain rod. The most common color is white, providing a unified appearance in professional spaces like offices and hospitals.
It is important to check the product’s care and cleaning instructions before purchasing a blackout curtain. It is essential to follow the instructions provided by the product before purchasing to ensure a smooth and functional installation.
How do you get wrinkles out of sun zero curtains?
The text provides instructions on how to remove wrinkles from sun zero blackout curtains using an electric clothes steamer. The curtains should be about a 1/2 inch longer after using the steamer. To remove wrinkles, place them in the washing machine’s rinse setting and dry on low. After removing the curtains, they should be fine. However, if you don’t mind wrinkles for a few days, they are unnoticeable. The instructions are helpful for those looking to remove wrinkles from curtains.
What are the disadvantages of blackout curtains?
Blackout curtains and roller blinds are often made using polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a material with phthalates that can cause damage to the human body through air particles and direct contact. The Center for Health, Environment and Justice (CHEJ) warns that PVC exposure can lead to air and groundwater pollution, immune and reproductive system damage, landfill gas formation, increased risk of brain and liver cancer, and liver damage.
Why is my room so hot even with blackout curtains?
Poor insulation in a room can cause it to become a heat magnet, absorbing warmth from the outside and retaining it inside. This issue is particularly problematic at night, as it retains heat even after the sun goes down. Direct sunlight, particularly from south and west-facing rooms, can significantly increase room temperature, especially if other rooms have less direct sunlight. Poor ventilation issues, such as blocked vents, closed doors, or malfunctioning HVAC systems, can also contribute to the room’s high temperature. Proper airflow is essential for maintaining consistent temperatures, but poor ventilation can lead to heat accumulation in the room.
What type of curtains do hotels use?
Blackout curtains are a common window treatment in a variety of settings, including hotel guest rooms, theaters, and private bedrooms. Such window treatments impede the passage of light from the exterior, thereby reducing the overall level of illumination within the space. Fabric of substantial weight is used in their construction, affording the occupants a reasonable degree of privacy. Five-star hotels favour them for their energy efficiency and safety, particularly in the context of small children. Additionally, they are utilized in residential and commercial settings.
How much do blackout curtains weigh?
Blackout curtains are typically heavier than other window treatments due to their thick, opaque fabric, weighing between 1. 5 and 3 pounds per square yard. This is heavier than most other curtains, such as sheer or lightweight curtains, which typically weigh less than 1 pound per square yard. The actual weight of blackout curtains can vary depending on the specific design and construction.
The weight of blackout curtains can affect their performance and durability in several ways. They may be more difficult to open and close, putting more strain on the curtain rod and brackets, potentially leading to damage or breakage over time. Additionally, they can be more challenging to clean and maintain, as they may be difficult to remove from the rod and wash or dry clean.
On the other hand, choosing lightweight blackout curtains can provide several benefits for your home. They are easier to open and close, putting less strain on the curtain rod and brackets, extending their lifespan and reducing the need for repairs. Additionally, lightweight curtains are easier to clean and maintain, keeping them looking fresh and new for longer. Overall, choosing lightweight blackout curtains can improve the performance and durability of your window treatment.
How much bigger should blackout curtains be than window?
To measure the width of your window, use a measuring tape to measure from one side of the frame to the other. The curtain’s width should be 1. 5 to 2 times this measurement for full coverage. Measure the height from the top of the frame to the windowsill or floor, adding an extra 6 to 12 inches to account for the curtain rod. If you have a curtain rod installed, measure its width to ensure it fits perfectly.
If not, plan for it to extend at least 3 to 6 inches on either side of the window frame to prevent light leakage around the edges. It’s always a good idea to measure twice to confirm your measurements.
Do sun blocking curtains work?
Blackout curtains are a cost-effective solution for reducing thermal energy loss and greenhouse gas emissions. They trap heat in winter and keep light and heat out during summer, reducing 10-25% of thermal energy loss. High-end blackout curtains can be found for less than twenty dollars and can be made from existing curtains using blackout liners from haberdashery stores. Green Living Tips suggests converting current curtains with a sewing machine to save money.
Blackout shades and blinds are similar window coverings, but are often preferred for larger windows. Blackout curtains are often preferred for larger windows, while shades and blinds are suitable for smaller windows. Blinds control light entering a room, making them ideal for photographers or artists working with varying shades of light.
Blackout curtains can be hung like regular curtains, with the fabric at the top properly blocking light and allowing ample space to cover the sides of the window. Some companies use vinyl, a material with health risks, but non-vinyl curtains are available to choose from. Blackout curtains are effective in all climates, blocking heat from entering hot climates and retaining heat in cold climates, enhancing energy efficiency. They can be used in various rooms, including home theaters and photography studios, to control light and improve insulation.
What is the best window treatment to block heat from the sun?
Exterior shutters and shades, made from various materials like fabric, wood, steel, aluminum, or vinyl, are effective in reducing solar heat gain. Insulated cellular shades, made of pleated materials, fold up accordion-like at the top or bottom of the window and contain one or more air layers in a honeycomb cross-section. These shades have the highest R-values of all window coverings, as the air pockets act as insulators, increasing the R-value and reducing heat conduction. Insulated cellular shades offer significant energy savings, comfort, privacy, and increased home resale value.
Do sun zero curtains keep heat out?
The Sun Zero Gavin Blackout Panel represents a versatile and stylish solution for any room in the home. Its classic design features an easy-to-hang grommet-top that effectively blocks light and noise, thereby promoting a more restful sleep. Additionally, it helps maintain a comfortable temperature year-round, keeping the home cooler in summer and warmer in winter.
📹 How This Midcentury Modern House Harnesses the Sun
The term ‘Solar Home’ was coined in Chicago in the 1940s. Despite the recent declaration of the term, good practices around …
One lesson i learned recently about color was when we bought our new sofa and loveseat. In the store, they looked to be a deeper, almost moss green, but when they were delivered, they looked like almost a blue-green. i thought i had just been seeing things wrong in the store, so when i went back to find a chair, i took an arm cover from the sofa. Sure enough, it looked entirely different in the store, and then i realized it had to do with the lighting in the space. i still really like our s/l, but i wish they were the shade i thought they would be when i ordered them. Oh well, there are bigger problems in the world than that, i suppose 😉 Really informative and helpful article, DD. Happy 2024, everyone.
Fantastic article! I have been stuck for 5 years trying to combine multiple design styles and colors with no success. You are so right when you say “how do you feel’. I find that my eye enjoys clean lines and modern design styles like Restoration Hardware, but I have a strong “gut” reaction to cozy cottage traditional styles and realize I NEED certain colors in my home to elevate my mood. I “feel” depressed when looking at neutral palettes in RH with only the beiges, browns, blacks, etc and, dear God, can’t even stand grey. So depressing. However, as mentioned above, my eye LOVES the lines. I must have reds, yellows, greens, rust colors in my house. I may just hire you!
I have watched or read about the 60,30,10 rule hundreds of times but your explanation was hands down the best and most easy to understand. I am a curated eclectic so I more 50,30,8,8,4 but I keep my color values the same, so it works for me! BTW, I live in Tucson and I have tinted windows which I have to take into account when choosing color.
OR one other base for picking colors is to find a fabric print (a necktie, scarf, etc.) with 3 colors that you really like or already has some colors that you cannot change with additional color. That would be your “palette”. Normally a fabric’s colors has a studied or formulated mix of colors that will appeal on their own merit, so they can sell them.
I love your website and I agree with your principles. But – I just have to say – that chair is so distracting to the message that it’s rather hilarious. Yes, it’s a stunning art piece. But damn, all I can see is that stripe pattern perfectly sewn together to create massive shoulder pads whenever you’re in close-up, and angel wings when you’re not.
I think this rule only works nicely for contrasting colors. For example, if I have white walls I wouldn’t say they are necessarily the 60% primary color because they can just as well be an empty canvas for colors to add. But if I’m Patrick Bateman and want a deliberate high-contrast black and white aesthetic, then white would be the 60% and black the 30% (and red the 10%, I guess) I also think you can combine similar colors. Most of the examples shown have more than three colors, anyway
Great article Design Daddy!!!! You and others here on YT have inspired me to seek out Interior Decorating for a secondary career that puts me in a fun, happy place after being in a Operating Room all day!!! I really love my job in CVOR ( Open ❤ Surgery Operating Room), but sadly Healthcare has changed drastically and not for the better and it’s depressing!!! Love your articles and teachings on things I didn’t and don’t know and enhancing things that I know❤❤❤!!!
I have downsized twice since I bought my sofas & chairs. Realistically they are too big for my living room, but, were too expensive to swap. I recently unzipped the arms and its made a huge difference, but still too big really. Anyhow, this furniture is grey (now 10 yrs old too) and I have 2 x grey full length window dressings. So I feel I have done the maths but in different ways, my walls are now blush pink, and I feel the 10% is the chrome for curtain poles, lighting, even picture frames (pink in the pics). I feel it works. Has to be said the WHOLE look is ruined with throws everywhere as 3 labrador crosses are on the furniture 😂😂😂
I live in a log home, so the dominant color is brown with very yellow undertones. My cabinets and dining room furniture are cherry. As a change from twenty years of rust and avocado and sage green I therefore am bringing in a new color scheme of celadon green sofa with brown leather chairs, a side chair with a base of off white with blues and greens in an abstract tree pattern, including brown trunks. This pattern brings in all the colors of the other furniture and walls/floors. The area rugs also have a background of off white with the other colors included as the colors of the patterns on the rug. Selecting the fun print for the side chair provided the tie in for the color scheme.
Retailers ‘artificial’ light is the cause for colour misinterpretation opposed to your natural home light. People make the same mistake when choosing rugs/sofa colours etc from computer screen websites. I made this mistake when choosing rugs, which all turned out to be at least 10 shades different from on screen (never again!). Also a lesson, never choose a colour purely by what the ‘company buying/marketing team’ have chose to name it ie ‘Arabian Sunset’, ‘Railings Grey’ or Ocean Mist Blue’ etc. These are just ‘company marketing spins’ which simply basically sound better then “Deep Orange’, Dark Grey or Pale Blue! ….which you will find never match ‘your’ mental idyllic image of that colour or your compliment the rest of your interior.
Dearest Design Daddy, I love you so so much! I am glad I found you! You brighten up my day as I watch you via my phone at the gym on the stair master. As a real estate agent, I appreciate all of your wonderful ideas and love your positive articles. But, I beg you please please get rid of that stripe chair.. every time I see it I keep thinking of awful things that I don’t dare to say.. and you’re just way too cute for it! Why? Please let it go!
You would definitely not like my house. Yes, I have white walls, an brown floor and cabinets, but the sectional is fuchsia, one chair is bottle green and the other amber, the curtains on one side are teal and on the other side of the room they’re lime. And then the rugs are rainbow colours. And it works. As a friend once said: in other people’s home a pink couch would be the eyecatcher in the room. In my house it’s the calming element. 😂
Thank you for saying what I have been thinking and saying for several year: let go of the phrase ” pop of color”. I feel the same way about these over used trendy words: ” a moment”, ” I’m obsessed with…”, “I’m so excited”, “Let’s jump right in to “, ” that being said”, ” and yeah”, Starting every sentence with “So this is”. Thank you for letting me rant! 😅
Interesting 🤔 My entire home is 60% blue (sometimes green) 30% red (sometimes pink) 10% yellow, and I think it is so cozy and cheerful and harmonious. It mirrors the exterior of my farm – blue/green (sky, mountains, plants), red (barn, house is a muted reddish brick/stone), yellow (flowers at different seasons, hay bales, leaves in the fall)
This one took me back to my undergrad days doing net-zero design. I think it’s really fascinating how many residential projects these days try to brute force green design practices with panels and finishes while almost completely ignoring site and orientation when those factors are so powerful in this conversation.
My grandfather’s house had a cool trick for keeping food fresh, built back before refrigerators. There was a vertically oriented cabinet built into the Kitchen cabinetry. When you opened it, the shelves were all wooden grids. Stick your head in and you saw that the top and bottom of the cabinet were open; on the bottom, into the basement/crawl space of the house, on the top into the attic space, where there was a large Venturi vent to allow hot air accumulating in the attic to escape. When you stuck your hand into the cabinet, you could always feel a gentle breeze blowing up, pulling cool air from the crawl space up into the attic. So, say you wanted to keep a head of lettuce or something like that fresher for longer, and your literal icebox simply did not have the room, and anyway was too cold. You cut the head of lettuce in half and placed each half on a plate and put it in the cabinet, then you poured a little water into the plate and covered it with a cloth. The water would wick up into the cloth, and the constant breeze blowing in the closed cabinet would cause the water in the cloth to evaporate, dropping the temperature inside the cloth by 15 or 20 degree. My grandfather told me all the houses built back when his were built had such cabinets, but most people in the 1960s didn’t know what they were for and so they closed off the top and bottom and put in normal shelving. In the 1960’s he still used his to make produce last longer.
My parents actually did something similar when designing their home. The Balcony railing on the south side is intentionally build to allow climbing plants to use it. In the sommer, these plants grow leaves that throw shade on the windows below, while in Winter all the leaves are gone and the Sun can easily heat up the House. This seriously saves quite some energy.
The complete opposite approach from where I am. I work as an architect in Thailand which is very hot and high humidity in all seasons. The approach we go for is limited to blocking out the heat and extra ventilation flow. Facing our opening at north side and solid wall at the south. Lifting our floor to stay away from the ground to create air barrier for humidity when floor start release heat in the evening.
All of these principles are so basic to good building, but so often ignored these days. It seems like many architects and their clients think that modern HVAC systems can make a space comfortable using brute force. Not only is this incredibly wasteful and expensive; it often doesn’t work. As an example, a friend of mine worked in a tall office building in the Long Island City section of Queens built in the late 1980s. The building was sheathed entirely in glass, with architect-designed mylar shades in the south and west-facing spaces. Despite this, these spaces were impossible to work in even in the winter because of the heat gain. No amount of air conditioning could mitigate the problem. Those spaces are now used mainly as storage and utility rooms, or left empty. The Schweikher House has very much the same vibe as many of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian houses. I wonder if they influenced each other.
Glad you were able to visit Stewart. This has been one of my favorite houses for decades. In fact, I had my architectural studio on the property for over for over 20 years. I was the building architect and assisted with all its restoration during that time. Curiously, your comments about the house are almost verbatim from the tour I developed and gave to hundreds of people. I can only guess that it was offer to you by the current staff. I really hope you enjoyed seeing it. Wish your could have come while Martyl still lived there. You would have noticed a distinct difference. Keep up the good work. Love your articles. Cheers.
My question is, that if you walked around with an IR camera in one of these older solar homes, how “sealed” is it? Or are the deficiencies in the construction (gaps, old glass, improper fitment) even out weighed by the “efficiency” they have utilizing the Sun? It seems, as modern “green” design goes, it’s the engineers world for hvac… How well can I contain a space, in order to most precisely manipulate the conditions inside it. As opposed to actual symbiosis with the environment the building is being built in. PS love your content!
Huge fan of your articles, have to be honest this is one of my favorites because passive design and siting is one of my personal favorite topics. It makes me think about Alvar Aalto (especially his choices for the siting of the MIT dormitory) and Lewis Mumford criticisms of the UN Building. Random thoughts: I would be really curious to see you do a article on how despite Modernism being seen as “international” it also grew out of masters in what Kenneth Frampton called critical regionalism (e.g. Aalto, Gaudi, Horta). Another topic that I think could be really interesting would be the design of “middle density” housing and how architects balance that. Or, similarly, design approaches for really small lots. Not that you don’t clearly have enough good ideas coming out. Anyway, thanks for making me get a weekly dose of arch hist.
Not sure if you have seen or heard of the Cold Climate Housing Reaserch Center (CCHRC) in Fairbanks, Alaska, but they have done a lot of research and experimentation with homes and buildings using passive solar to provide a more comfortable and affordable living space for people in the Arctic. They have a YouTube website with articles that go in to some detail on these homes. You may also be interested in their office building which was built not only as a work space but also a testbed for some for the technologies and building techniques that have been pioneered by their work over the last 20 or so years. This article reminded me of some of their work regarding optimizing roof overhangs to allow 3 seasons of sunlight into a space and shade out the hot and constant summer sun. Keep up the good work!
These ideas were used by German farmers living along the Volga River in the Kanton of Frank in the 1800’s. Their homes were dug about 4 feet below grade level. So you stepped down about four steps into the house. The walls were made of a mixture of mud and straw with no north facing windows. The south facing windows did not allow indirect summer sun. In the winter the sun reached about 20 feet into the rooms. A thermal mass Russian style stove kept the houses comfortable in the winter, using very little fuel. A few of theses homes were built on farms in Nebraska in the l1890’s. They were said to be very warm in the winter and cool in the summer heat.
I keep waiting for the phase change solar mass to hit the market. I saw something on it a few years back. It used sealed wax beads in the dry wall. The wax was formulated to go through a phase change at a specific temperature (near room temperature). That let it absorb a huge amount of energy whenever the room was above that temperature and then radiate it back when the temperature dropped. It took up much less space than traditional thermal mass and by adjusting the mix when making wax you could adjust the temperature the wall tried to keep the room at.
Our house has some of these designs, including a foot of concrete underneath the section of floor receiving winter sun. On sunny winter days, the temperature in these rooms is always 2-5 degrees above the thermostat set point. So nice! At night we have shoji screens to pull across the glass, which helps with thermal retention.
This sounds great and I have a porch I built with the same principle but it’s kind of wrong. What you’ll find is that it’s great on Dec 22nd, the sun reaches across the room. And then you remember that you haven’t actually hit winter yet and you watch rather sadly as January leads to February and the sun line is marching back across the floor and by early March it’s still butt cold and you have almost no sunlight. 30 degrees would be a better angle than 24.5. You’ll still block summer sun but you’ll get better thermal gain from early November through March.
This method is used in cob houses. In studying them I read the winter sun at noon is the same angle as summer moon at midnight and vice versa. This was a way to get sight lines in order for opposing seasons though they are 6 months away. In addition to that, they would build just to the east of deciduous trees to get additional shading in the summer and sun in the winter. Natural shading is a huge cooling factor in the summer.
Great article! However, I think that it is important to mention that while 24.5 degrees might be perfect for IL, you’ll need to calculate this according to your location. Up here in Canada, that angle decreases as the sun is lower all year round. Something else to consider is that the angle changes throughout the year and it might be a mistake to design for the lowest angle since you’ll only experience that during a short period each year. Instead, one idea would be to design for the shoulder seasons. Especially in a cooler climate zone, designing for a 45 degree angle might be a good compromise as it will still allow sun to reach the floor in November and March.
Good job on the voice pacing! It’s been improving, but today was just right. I took a few passive solar classes at Cal in 1980. One focused on redoing the facade of an office building to keep the sun out to reduce massive AC costs, and let it when heating was needed. So, louvers, overhangs, brise sloleil, etc.
Those of us who grew up in South Florida are well familiar with The Barnacle, the oldest house in Miami-Dade County that is still in its original location (there are older homes, but they’ve been moved). It was built in 1891 by Ralph Munroe, one of the founders of Coconut Grove and the founder of the Biscayne Bay Yacht Club. Its property sits directly on Biscayne Bay, with a direct clearing through the canopy from the house to the water. It isn’t exactly a “solar home” in the sense of what we’re talking about here, but it’s one of the earliest examples of modern passive cooling that I’m aware of. The main structure is almost exactly a square footprint, oriented northwest to southeast from front to back, with the front and both sides under significant shade. The sun doesn’t directly come through the windows in the back, but anyone who has lived in Miami can tell you that doesn’t matter. The roof is what really does all the cooling work. In addition to significantly large gable overhangs for shade, the roof structure is a pyramid with a covered vent at the top. That, combined with the seabreeze coming off the bay, pushed warm air up and out of the peak of the ceiling. Anyone who has taken the tour as a school kid (as I did) likely recalls the tour guide’s explanation that a solid block of ice, which was used to provide drinking water and cooling for the ice box, would last several days in the central kitchen on the first floor, because it would remain cool enough in that location even in the peak of summer.
It feels “roman”. For a more organic relationship between a building and it’s environment we should almost always look to ancient architecture, specially Rome, they knew how to do stuff confortable. The only issue I have with all this, is the disparity in life quality between who can afford and who cannot such a home. Like health care, I believe a home should not be a commodity, but a universal necessity. No one is an animal. I know you have a article on architecture and social programs, but I wanted to point out the Passive techiques that could be used in a more universal way.
This is the most concise explanation of passive solar I’ve ever heard! And with a great demo house. I will be sharing this a lot. The only thing I might add is that a stone or concrete floor is usually recommended because they have significantly more thermal mass than wood. It’s frustrating to see that every new home in the last 50 years completely ignores solar orientation. It’s free heating and cooling at basically no extra cost.
My house was built in 1875. It has a side porch on the south side along with a solarium. It does exactly the same thing. Besides the sun in the rooms during the winter the solarium can reach 90 degrees if it’s closed. Of course I open it during the day and it works like a huge space heater..I also have transoms which I can use to create drafts during the spring and fall. (Summer has become too hot)
Stewart, Great article! Fascinating topic. What’s the bottom line conclusion?! Does it work? What are your heating and cooling costs compared to a regular house? Do you have AC? How do you like living there? What is it like? The theory is nice but does it live up to all the hype as a person living in it from season to season? I could see another article just following up with all this kind of info!
After 90 years, this example of passive solar technology is still working perfectly with no extra effort from the home owner. In comparison, photovoltaics panels are finicky, need maintenance, need replacing every couple decades, and their savings are debatable. A new home owner might remove or neglect a PV system, but passive solar features are simply part of a home, and continue to work unnoticed. Without fan fare, passive solar simply makes makes homes more comfortable at less cost. Good article.
It’s very interesting to see the comparison between Illinois and Australian architecture which focuses less on the heating instead the cooling. A house is to be fully openable essentially just a roof for it to passively work in summer. Glenn Murcutt, Peter Stutchbury, Rick Leplastrier are good examples. That being said it still needs to accommodate for some cold winters. Loved the vid
Videos like this get me all spiced up about how frustrating it can be to witness massive swaths of suburban homes pop up who completely disregard the site on which they are being built. To me, making more sustainable long term homes that rely less on electricity to run heat and air conditioning could be addressed at the design phase. But it’s simply ignored because it’s just not how the industry makes money. I live in a post ww2 neighborhood. So, these houses went up super fast and often ignored the site they were built on as well. There are maybe 4 unique designs, then they’re mirrored too. So basically same house, hundreds of houses. The only benefit this neighborhood has is time. I can easily walk around and observe how different homes addressed different issues over the years. Basically, I’m mad that each plot site wasn’t considered when designing. Like. I feel like it wouldn’t have been impossible to map out the neighborhood and choose certain homes for certain plots. Like “these will be the south facing homes”, “these will be the west facing homes” even would have been a step up.
I was incredibly privileged in the mid 1990s to receive a private tour of the Schweickher house. What a exceptional environment to live in. I was impressed on how the use of wood on the interior carried over to the shower, which was lined with cypress, I believe. Thank you for showcasing this beautiful home and its history.
Stewart, thank you for sharing this article. Great topic. As it relates to the Schweikher House, I was struck by the materials used (brick, wood and glass) and the level and refinement of the work. So, I checked their website, checked the schedule and drove down for a visit this morning. What a wonderful find! Dan Fitzpatrick led me on a tour of this gem. I am not familiar but this is a masterpiece of architecture and engineering. A masterpiece, yet, a sublime one. Too much to describe but I will return. Thanks again for all of your articles, this one specifically. I shall return to Schaumburg soon.
Hi Stewart! Great article, very informative, however, if you don’t mind, I’d like to ask a rather unusual question: Where did you get that black zip hoodie from, what label is that? It looks awesome and distracted me throughout the article 🤩 Thanks in advance and again, sorry for ‘pestering’ this architecture website with my fashion inquiry. 😇
I grew up in a mid 19th century farm house (c. 1850), the porch on the South facing façade was acting like the hang over part of the article. The sun would shine in on winter and not shine in at all on summer. Although, all the rest of the heat distribution mechanics were absent, it still helped a lot to keep the temperature even.
This was a fairly common build technique in villa style houses going way back with their verandas, often around three sides, that allowed winter light in and kept summer sun out. Often parts of the veranda were glassed in to capture the heat like a glasshouse which could be admitted through large sash windows into the house. They also acted as sunrooms. In the summer those areas allowed people to sleep outside in a protected way to take advantage of the cooler night air. I grew up in such a house that was built in the 1910s and we took all those design features for granted. Many of the buildings at my primary and secondary schools were built with such features including entire walls made of concertina glass doors that opened the whole side of the room to the veranda and the fresh air.
When I lived in Japan, my apartment complex didn’t have bulky central heating and cooling and instead had utilized the same designs for climate control. The balcony of the the floor above served as an overhang to prevent summer rays but allowed the winter sun to warm the space to the point where i didn’t really miss my thermostat.
Beautiful house. I have studied the work of FLW extensively, and am a huge fan of such houses. I recently built one for my retirement, and have these comments: Managing the sun is straightforward, but not easy. Also, both furniture, carpets and humans must be simultaneously managed. My vote for the future is to use these designs for net zero greenhouses, and hybrid designs for human habitation. The plants’ needs are simpler to accommodate in our designs.
That Schweikher House is gorgeous. I love the warm materials used and how the home creates a courtyard. 1 story homes also show a sensitivity and modesty. They never scream look at me, I was made to impress you. It also let’s nature shine. It’s like the house says, I fit into your domain. I respect nature. Thanks for the great article Stewart.
While I would like to rely on sunlight through windows to warm during winter (and use shading in summer to prevent warming), I don’t think there are any windows on the market (per code) that permit it anymore. It seems every window that I can buy has such extreme low-E coatings/materials that little heat enters the house even in bright, direct sunlight. With my older windows, I can feel the warmth of the sunlight almost immediately and the areas in the sunlight get noticeably warm. With the newer windows, that warming is virtually eliminated.
The curator probably mentioned to you about The House of Tomorrow’s current location and it’s condition; so it’s rather hard to get tours in and around it. Though it is located near some other World’s Fair houses in Beverly Shores, Indiana. A good checking out of them and the shore if you’re ever in The Region.
Window awnings should be used everywhere but sadly they’re out of style now and seldom used despite their intelligent and logical functionality of letting winter sun in to heat the room and, when the sun in higher in the summer, keeping it out. But this only works well with shorter windows, not so much taller ones as shown at 1:30 here, otherwise the awning has to extend out too far which restricts vertical visibility and has a cramped, congested feeling, sort of like being smothered a bit when you’re inside. As the sun’s height in the sky is variable perhaps the answer to his are window coverings that control how much is exposed to the sun. That way the entire window can be open in the winter and just the top part in the summer so its closer to the awning. Short and wide windows can be placed high on the wall, especially good for areas with close neighbours. This allows abundant natural light and 100% privacy as long as there isn’t anyone above you or well above you. If there is, privacy can be retained by reflecting the outside light at about a 45 degree angle to your white/reflective ceiling to scatter it evenly throughout the room with no glare like direct sun plagues us with. One could also reflect light from outside inwards as well with a flat panel below the window outside. I hope that makes sense….
There’s one part of this article I don’t understand. At 2:43 you show the grate down into which cold air sinks, which you say helps to push warm air up into the room. How does that work? I was taught the principles of natural ventilation in architecture school, but this example doesn’t make intuitive sense to me.
A beautiful piece of architecture. What annoys me most is how easy these techniques are, how universally applied they can be to any piece of architecture or design and yet we are still producing these “cookie cutter” monster houses in these poorly designed neighbourhoods. I want to see a future where all houses are designed specifically to their vernacular, to the local environment. We have to stop thinking that a few solar panels (every house should have some) etc. on these poorly designed houses is the way forward. First we must address the issue of poor design.
This understanding and appreciation of these kinds of basic properties of passive heating and cooling in a structure are being employed in greenhouse designs, specifically, in ‘deep winter’ greenhouse design and construction, taking note of the latest building science technologies, such as building envelope for northern US regions and even some Canadian latitudes (~50° N). (see Arkopia)
It appears that other architects still apply these principles. My father’s house in Wisconsin has a passive solar room on the south side of the house. It doesn’t have the grates, but does have solar curtains to keep out the cold at night in winter and the heat out in summer. My father also put in two wall fans to pull the warm air out. In winter my father uses his furnace only once in the morning. He built his house in 1979-80. I was always surprised that this didn’t incorporated in every house.
I live in a house that harnesses the sun. I live on an island in the northernmost part of Norway, equal to the northern coast of Alaska. A day where it’s 17-18c outside and sunny, it’s 30c inside with all the doors and windows open and a draft. If it’s not sunny, it’ll be 24-25c inside without any other power sources running than a computer, a fridge, a couple of freezers and a TV. So if you like spending money on cooling in addition to heating, get a house that harnesses the sun, especially if you live further south than me.
I wonder why Schweikher chose to set the awning at 24.5 degrees when the sun would only be low enough to shine into the house at midday for a few days on either side of the solstice, and those aren’t even the coldest days in the midwest. From Schaumburg, IL, part of the sun’s disc is below 24.5 degrees from December 10 to the 20th. On Dec. 21-22 the entirety of the sun would shine into the house at midday, and then for the following 11 days it would gradually disappear behind the awning for part of the day. By January 3rd it’s completely hidden from view again around noon. If the awning were set 2 degrees higher it would allow the sun to shine in all day until mid-January when the midwest typically experiences the coldest weather of the year.
we have certainly come a long way since then but its disappointing that more are either not taught these principles or don’t apply them. why are they not every day houses yet. also I think you got the grid in the floor a little wrong. logically the sun side window is hotter creating a low pressure system thus drawing colder air up from the back side of the house through natural convection. Perhaps if he had a curtain along the inside edge of the grid parallel to the window’s with a gap both along the floor and ceiling, the curtain could trap the heat between the glass and curtain creating a stronger draft pulling up moore cool air across the room. using the summer sun to cool the house.
‘Despite the recent declaration of the term, good practices around orientation and window placement have been around centuries.’ The problem remains, very few of the pieces needed for a true Solar Home are still not used and for the most part, forgotten or ignored. Net Zero can never be achieved in America because there is no APP for that.
Hello everyone undergrad student from Turkey here. There are more techniques in the sense of utilizing the sun. Especially in the middle east and north africa regions. Certain dome styles use different pressured airs (pressure, created by the flow of air) to ventilate, or the sun chimneys to create airflow yet again. Very good article also thank you for doing this.
My house is passively heated, but it uses brick flooring for thermal mass, which I think is better than wood. The one thing I’ll say about passive solar is that most calculations leave you hanging in the early spring. It’s time distance from the winter solstice means that you’re already well into indirect solar mode by April 1 when you certainly still need heating
If you’re going to say…we don’t have airplane hanger’s in our own homes. Then you haven’t seen some communities. There are house’s next to their private airstrip and people taxi their planes up to their garage and store the airplane in the garage/ hanger. My biological father would fly our airplane (N51305) from the state we lived in to his job in another state.
Every house should be like this. The tradition of putting big windows on the road-facing side of the house is pointless, your house could be facing west into the hot afternoon sun (I live in Australia) and yet have big windows facing west which you then desperatley have to try to block whilst having your air con cranked up to high all summer, heating the outside air. Suburban planning sucks.
Recently visited Stratford Hall on a hot day in Virginia and was struck by (a) how cool the interior felt and (b) how good the naturally harvested light was within rooms with relatively small windows. Glass is set close to the exterior surfaces and the thick walls with splayed jambs do a phenomenal job at capturing and distributing natural light. I could easily read 20’ from exterior walls with no artificial lighting. Very balanced.
I’m trying to build a solar home in a very hot, humid climate. I’m disabled on limited income (less than one k) from an area with a housing crisis and people sleeping in the streets. So I went south but it rains, bugs, etc. I need an age in place home. It’s not a luxury. No idea how I’ll get the money yet. Have a small space though and will hopefully have the title soon. Paying over 10% income for it every month. Saving materials to recycle for the construction later. Collecting plants and trees for the garden to give shade later. But meanwhile I’m trying to design an affordable plan using passive solar (can’t afford electric bill). But I’m not seeing the link to help me calculate the sun from my area, etc.
We learned very little about this in architecture school but enough to know it’s possible obviously. So much analog and passive skill is more valid than the mech systems of today. Thing is how to develop the concepts and operating principles into. Ore diverse forms instead of the typical flat or canted roof and opposing masonry wall. Thank you for sharing.
Glass has a fairly low r values and will let heat in and out easily and quickly. If your in winter and it’s sunny I can see the idea of the green house effect working favorably. But a cold cloudy day is not usual winter weather in many areas. I feel like you would lose a lot of heat with big windows on all sides. regional weather/climate is a really important factor when thinking about these designs that was left out i think a follow up article with more detail on how design chooses might be influenced by region would be nice.
I thought this was one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian houses,…..(several of them I have visited),….I didn’t know this style of house was common and replicated by other Architects. I am not an architect, & there is a lot I don’t know. But I see many similar aspects of this house that are in common with them.
Minimum passive solar design combined with a Passive House envelope is the winning combination. Orientation and solar design influencing every aspect of the building design is an out of date concept. It’s good to learn the history of passive solar design, but advances in building science has moved us beyond these 20th century concepts.
Hi Stewart, I found this house very intriguing…. especially now in 2022 where we want to me more eco-friendly. Is the angle you mentioned pertinent solely for the longitudinal location of the house in relation to the sun during Winter? I live in Denmark in Scandinavia where our Winters typically range between 20°F (sometimes down to just 10°F) and up to 45°F… During the Summer we typically see daytime temps between 60°F to 80°F, on rare occasions as high as 97°F. Our Houses are typically one of two types… 1) Double brick outer walls with 12-18 inches of Rockwool insulation in between, or 2) Single layers brick outer walls with a type of aerated concrete inner walls clad with gypsum sheets and wallpaper. As for windows, we have either double- or triple-glazed windows. Central airconditioning is as rare as a hens tooth here in domestic homes, and heating costs are quite high… I feel this would be a viable solution. Are there any books about this particular house?
This is pretty much the type of house I would build. It’s very smart to use as much passive heating and cooling as possible. It saves a lot of money. How do they keep the house warm when it’s an overcast day in winter, or if you get several overcast days in a row? I’m just thinking that this past January it was very gray most of the month in the Chicago area. It was very dreary.
Took this as a solid piece of advice while designing my future home. Also, the low roof slope from another of your articles. Thanks for handing us this valuable data! As for the roof slope: a 4.5m takes a 80cm height for the tangent to get close to that angle. Or a 5.65m and a 1m height. Sorry for the lack of imperial units, metric ones are the way to do things where I live at.
I assumed that these ideas might have started post-WWII, so it’s amazing to see these designs in the 1930s. And of course our understanding improves incrementally over time. I live in Canberra, Australia, which has pretty extreme cycles between summer and winter temps – up to +43 C in summer and -8 C in winter. My little brick unit was built in the 1980s, with obvious reference to where the sun is year-round. Sunlight literally hits the interior edge of the window frame at the bottom of my northfacing wall (entirely glass) around 4 weeks before the autumn solstice, just when the summer heat is over. Over the autumn/winter, it encroaches further into my living space, although not reaching the back wall. The reverse happens during the approach to summer. There’s a direct airflow through the central corridor to the windows at the rear, if they’re open (no high-up vents). However, this wonderful design is not as efficient as it might be, since the north-facing windows are single-glazed, I suspect there’s no thermal break between the concrete slab that makes up my floor (under carpet) and the full-width concrete balcony, and the ceiling insulation is about half what it should be (I’m not fixing any of these things since I’ll be moving soon). Also, while the exterior walls are genuine double-brick, there’s only a small air gap, no insulation. So we’ve learned a bit more since the 80s – I’m sure there would be other efficiencies I’m not aware of. As it is, though, we’ve gone through a somewhat cooler summer than usual, and by keeping the rear windows open and opening the front ranch slider when the sun has moved sufficiently west that heat isn’t bouncing off the balcony, I have not needed to run the air-con once.
We built our super insulated home in Fairanks Alaska with sun heat and 8 inches of insulation. (Rock wool and blue board foam is the best). We spent 1 week finding the perfect spot to face the sun in winter time on a hillside property. We have 3 large 4×4 fixed pain windows facing winter south. This has been 3 years of payoff as we have stunning mountian views along with vitamin D and massive amounts of warmth. The long 6 months of winter are very bearable now compared to 15 yrs living on the flat land in North Pole. For summer 24 hr sun: We installed cross breeze operable windows on the E/W sides and heavy shades for summer on the south side. My wife designed it with an expert sourdough builder down the street who showed us all the things 30 years of “wish he would have done but didn’t “. So far we have no regrets. Cheers from Alaska.
I have to differ in this… It depends, A LOT where you live, for example, for solar panels in México city you alocate them at 14 degrees for maximum sun reach, doing the calculations for the house you reach something similar by extending the roof or building slabs to cover or maximize the sun, again… It all depends what you want to achieve and where you live… In South America heavier and thicker materials are used therefore using similar methods can overheat the space or get natural cold spots, another example of a solar house way different of how you talk about them are the lak a utas in Lap Paz Bolivia, which harness the sun to heat up the house made of 1m thick adobe, the concept might be correct but there’s more to it
One of the houses that captured my imagination as a child was the Alfred A. Schiller House in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. I believe it was designed by Schweikher & Elting for Alfred Schiller. The house had so few windows on the outside, and yet full of glass on the inside surrounding a central atrium. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2008, yet still some how got demolished and it broke my heart.
The problem: The angle of the sun is equal on March 21st and Sept21 BUT weather is no where near the SAME in March as Sept. This is due to the inertia of the earth, it take time for the land and air to warm from the winter, so March doesn’t equal Sept. A better design uses hardwood trees, that leaf out and drop their leaves at times matching the warming temps. With their leaves down during winter the low angle light can enter windows. Most of the problems with “passive” is having too little control. A combination of operable draps with trapped air pockets and reflective layers, plus use of hardwoods to create shade when you need shade.
Hi stewart! Appreciate your articles. I’m curious about (and would love to see a article of it :D) the DIY and adaptive reuse culture of skateboarding and how it adapts to the makeup of the city to be their own playground. How does Architecture play in that role and what examples are there of this? Thanks a lot, much love.
I used to have a MCM home in Midland, MI designed by Jackson B Hallett, 1907 Sylvan Ln. It was designed with the same passive energy principles. No west facing windows, other than one very slim window in the corner of the office. The south facing side is ~all glass, but has an overhang which blocks direct sun in summer, but allows full sun in winter, when the sun is lower in the sky. In winter the direct sun heats the extensive brick work in the middle of the home, which acts as a thermal battery. The home was also designed around large trees adjacent to it, which provide shade in summer, and act as wind blocks in winter. When I purchased it, I assumed my energy bills would be much higher with all the glass. They were extremely low for a home of it’s size. These passive energy management design principles work well.
You are using the wrong word in your title. “Harness” is something you use to bind something or someone, like for example safety harness. You mean “harvest”, so the title should be “How this mid-century modern house harvests the sun”. Also, only the first word should be in capital letter, but if you insist in using capital letters for (almost) every word then you should not leave one word out. 🙂
Here in Brazil people run from the sun, because the sun is so hot all year round. Buying a house somewhere that is shaded, with the backside turned to a hill that hides the sun earlier, can make a house cost double or more. It’s very expensive to keep the heat out of your house. And, off course, being a third world country air conditioning is quite expensive. I bought a stony hill 25km away from the town center, people said I was crazy, but I had in mind building my house in the perfect spot. The sun sets at the back of my house, and this hill is 1300 meters above the sea level, so it’s almost never too hot. On the contrary, in the winter it’s a little too cold, but it almost never goes below zero, so it’s not like in much of USA. As the house is turned to the east, where the sun rises in the morning, it also conveniently gets warmer early in the morning, when it’s most cold.
I’ve heard of a lot more houses these days using infrared-blocking windows to passively manage temperature. They’re generally only installed on the upper levels of homes, while the ground floor uses untreated windows, with overhangs of about 24.5° like in this article. The infrared heat of the sun gets blocked by the treated windows and the overhang in Summer, but is able to freely stream into ground floor windows during the winter, where it can rise and keep the whole house warm. Only downside I’ve seen is that the upper floor windows can get remarkably cold. It’s a little unsettling to be sitting right in front of a southern window on a bright sunny day, and still be shivering, and we’ve even had cases of frost building up on the inside of the window in extremely cold weather.
In 1984-1987 I designed, engineered, and built, along with my husband & 2 teenage sons, a log cabin on a full walkout South facing basement totaling 3,600 sq.ft. of living area. It is passive solar. I engineered the cabin for the sun to begin entering/leaving the South facing atrium doors on the Spring/Fall equinoxes. By Dec.21st the sunshine comes back 12′ on the basement level, 10′ upstairs. This works well because heat rises. I’m not a college graduate. Never even studied drafting. I used library books to study solar, and to determine the declination of the sun. All windows/doors are double pane and standard sizes that you can buy locally anywhere. Exterior of basement is rock over insulated 10″ cinderblocks (heatsink). This log cabin used 8″ pine logs (heatsink). It works! And I have a heatpump HVAC system for climate control. This design was given to me in a dream. I’d been working on the design for about a year & nothing seemed to be “right” until I dreamed. I got out of bed, put the coffee on, set up my drafting board and scaled paper 1/4″ = 1′, and when my husband got up and looked over my shoulder he exclaimed, “That’s it!” I’ve lived here 35 years now, and I am so glad I designed this home to be passive solar. It’s saved us a lot in heating/air-conditioning bills and the 1st month we moved in (Feb.1987) the electric company (Dominion Power) sent out 3 different meter readers to verify that we weren’t stealing power!
Stuart thank you for this article. Thanks to seeing this my wife and I toured the house today. I had no idea about this architect or his house and it was great to learn about both. Seeing this article and this house are both good refreshers to remind me of these principles from architecture college 32 years ago now.
this is my primary fascination in architecture, the building as a machine for efficiently creating a unique and comfortable space. I’m also from Chicago and can’t help but feel like the buildings downtown are build in spite of their human occupants, don’t get me started on suburban developments or billionaire’s row in Manhattan…I think there’s huge potential to create a high performing passively heated and cooled high rise but to date, barring (perhaps shallow) aesthetics and maximizing property value/square footage, its all flash and no bang
The late 19th and early 20th c. had such an acceleration of experimentation and invention that I would think it is actually quite hard to definitively label something “first”. While acknowledging I am not an HVAC specialist or even a mechanical engineer, when looking at the plans of a 27 storey building in NYC called the Lefcourt State Building (architect Ely Jacques Kahn, construction 1926-1928), and poking around in its cellar, it looked like it had been designed with air-conditioning with vertical plenums in the exterior walls. There were enormous blowers in the cellar, too, now unused. There’s an archive of drawings from Kahn at the Avery Library. I was looking at the drawings on behalf of my client for a completely unrelated issue, so I didn’t look closely at the air circulation design. Interesting building, though, in several ways. The 5th Avenue Presbyterian Church also had a form of AC in vents in the floor of the sanctuary and fans in the cellar that pulled air over blocks of ice and pushed it into the space with the congregation. (Heating in the winter was similar, except involving the steam pipes.)
Yea this is really a copy of a Frank Lloyd Wright home. Wright started in Chicago and this home is located in Schamburg, a suburb of Chicago. Compare this home to any Wright home and you will see how similar they are. The Schweikher House should really make this information clear. Many of Wrights ideas were taken by others and he was never given credit. To learn about Wright visit the Frank Lloyd Wright museum located at the Johnson Wax campus designed by Wright in Racine Wisconsin.
I am building a skillion passive solar retirement cottage. A lot like Matt and Goldie’s earth ship but no tires or berm. 6/12 pitch for winter sun. Half the floor space in windows for solar gain. Gotta put thermal break and insulation under my thermal mass floor. Cold 48*F ground temp and 6 foot frost depth. Well insulated north cmu block with masonry veneer. Without educated idiot signing off on plans can only go up 20 with masonry columns under code. Doing old world masonry kitchen. Masonry stove, white oven, and heater. Like Temple of Malta. Can even get western Delta honey comb to match Maltese stone.
This reminds of a John C Parkin style house mid-1950’s, that unfortunately no longer exists in the Bridle Path neighbourhood of Toronto. While the current house is modern and minimal like the original dwelling, if you can call 5 bd/8 bth/indoor spa/yoga/pool and tennis courts minimalist living. It’s the thought that counts.
The article fails to mention that the Schweikher house is exactly in the style of Usonian homes, first created by Frank Lloyd Wright. Even the choice of internal material, covering, paneling, etc, is influenced by Wright’s design aesthetic. Wright was also employing passive solar design some forty years earlier, in his pioneering Prairie Style homes, with their widely overhanging roofs blocking the direct Summer sun while permitting low Winter sunshine to enter the houses.
Very difficult to do right, even with today’s high performance glazing. Tough sun is the afternoon sun, which is low, no matter what time of year, and will overheat. That “perfect” 24 degrees is humbug. Lots of glass will always overheat the home, even reflected diffuse sunlight will add significant heat load; you’d have to combine with planting shade outside. And in cold weather even the best triple pane IGU is worse performing than a cheap exterior wall. I am not against lots of glazing, just saying it is much more complicated than the sun angle. The natural ventilation is iffy, too. Brings in tons of moisture in summer, can work in swing seasons for a limited time. These days, use controlled mechanical Energy Recovery Ventilation for ventilation; cheap and effective and no window openings to take care of, runs silently in background and you have always fresh filtered air in the home, which also helps with all kinds of other potential issues. Thermal mass works well, but only if you have concrete floors with ceramic or stone tile, or similar materials. At which point you need radiant floor heating to stay comfortable, which is the only good way to heat homes IMHO anyway; works beautifully with Ground Source Heat Pumps, too.