If you're thinking of building your own home or work in the construction industry, you need to know about "natural conditioning". Otherwise known under a variety of names, such as "passive solar" and "day-lighting", this is the practice of designing and building a home so that it works to reduce your heating bills by optimizing natural heating and cooling.
According to national statistics, an average US couple spends about one working day a month earning enough money to pay their heating and cooling bills. That's twelve days of work lost every year, just because traditional home design is too limited to take efficient advantage of sunlight and ventilation!
On a wider scale, about one-fifth of the US's overall carbon dioxide emissions come from residential heating and cooling which, in turn, causes climate change and ecological problems not only in the US but around the world.
Natural conditioning is, quite simply, the ages-old art of maintaining a comfortable living environment without resorting to expensive, polluting fossil fuels. Humans lived comfortably in houses for thousands of years before air conditioning came along: all we need to do is relearn the science of harnessing heating, cooling, lighting and ventilation properly.
Natural conditioning consists of four main subject areas:
- Natural ventilation
- Day-lighting
- Passive solar heating
- Passive cooling
In many cases, these four areas intertwine and cross over, so it's best to gain a working understanding of them all before you step into the areas of planning and design.
What's it going to cost?
The good news is that, like most green energy solutions, implementing passive conditioning systems is usually a lot less expensive than you would imagine. They are elegant, simple and have impressive returns on investment because they are a part of the building itself – they'll last for decades instead of a few years.
The costs are obviously higher if you are retrofitting to an existing building, as you cannot simply pick and choose between solutions at will. You have to balance the cost of each retrofit against the returns it can provide and decide whether it stands within your budget or is impractical.
Will it provide for 100% of my needs?
Like most green systems, the answer depends on your needs, your location and what systems you install. In most cases, a passive system or set of systems is very unlikely to cover all your needs, year-round. For most people, green living is more about long-term sustainability than going completely off-grid, so a 100% replacement is unnecessary and far too expensive.
However, the good news is that you can cut your heating and cooling bills significantly by implementing passive green systems. Depending on your situation and location, you can look forward to paying at least 50% less every year, even if you're retrofitting. Given an average heating bill of around $3,000 a year, that's a lot of money.