With winter coming on it seems like a good time
to look at some passive solar heating options.
These are all in northern New Mexico.
The casita above probably started it's life as an adobe shed.
At some point it became a casita and this cozy sun room was added.
On sunny winter days it becomes a nice warm place to be.
This cool looking metal out building has a trombe wall.
The glazing covers a masonry wall painted black.
During the winter the sun warms up the masonry
and the heat radiates into the building
helping to moderate the temperature inside.
The water tubes on the right side of the above photo
were made by Kalwall many years ago.
The sun streams in from a bank of second floor windows
heating up the water (and a small amount of bleach).
That heat is released to the house at night.
This is the Stephen Kilborn Pottery in Pilar, New Mexico.
The windows on the south side make for a toasty winter work place.
You can see the row of windows on the left have a masonry wall
just behind the glass to retain the heat and cut the glare of the sun.
The bamboo shade cuts the heat gain on the warm late summer day
this photo was taken.
This was our house in Santa Fe which sports two attached solar greenhouses.
The first one we built is on the right and was added on to the original adobe house.
The one closest was part of an addition we added years later
and also served as the main entrance to the house creating a toasty air lock.
The glazing on the roof is a solar batch heater for the domestic hot water.
There is a 40 gallon tank under the glazing which is warmed by the sun,
and can either act as the sole water heater or as a preheater
for the on demand gas heater beside it.
The greenhouse will not freeze at night so there is no worry of any pipes bursting.
The two greenhouses provided 2/3 to 3/4 of our yearly space heating.
You recently saw this house in my post The Winter Garden #2...
... and what I wanted to show here is how nice
the inside of these attached greenhouses can be.
Not only do you get heat from the sun
but beautiful plants putting out oxygen as well.
And last but not least is the solar cooker.
Great for cooking bean, potatoes or what have you.
It works much like a crock pot.
For more on passive solar heating see my posts:
Passive Solar from February 10th or
The Attached Solar Greenhouse from June 25th.
Or click on the label on the right sidebar to Solar in New Mexico.
