ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses passive solar design and outlines passive solar systems: their definition, applications, performance and costs. The "passive" and "active" solar energy systems represent the extremes in a continuum of building and mechanical systems used to convert the sun's energy to useful thermal energy for the heating and cooling of buildings. There is a growing awareness that these definitions of solar heating and cooling systems and of energy conservation exclude dozens of simple methods for using solar and other natural forms of energy. The use of the "passive" was introduced several years ago to describe those methods of solar energy that do not use mechanical power but instead use natural energy flows for the transfer of thermal energy into and through a building. Passive solar water heating can also be accomplished through the use of black uninsulated water tanks directly exposed to sunlight. Probably the simplest "heating only" passive systems are thermo siphoning air collectors.
