ABSTRACT
Passive solar architecture is also about reconnecting buildings to the uniqueness of place and climate. One useful tool is the context of biomes. A biome is an ecological community of plants and animals extending over a large natural area. Worldwide biomes repeat over different continents due to similar environmental patterns. Solar radiation acts as a heat source for a building through direct, diffuse and reflected radiation. Diffuse radiation is the component of sunlight which reaches the ground after scattering and reflection by the earth's atmosphere. Some heat is always radiated from a building out to the sky. Under certain circumstances the upper atmosphere and space can act as an appreciable heat sink. The sol-air temperature is a fictitious, exterior air temperature, which would have the same effect on the building as the combined affects of the on-site sources and sinks. Well insulated lightweight construction, like a thermos bottle, reduces the heat gain and loss.
