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Use the Environment to Heat or Cool Your Home

In summer, you wish your home was cooler and in winter, you wish your home was warmer. This probably sounds familiar to homeowners all over Australia but you don’t have to resort to using expensive air conditioners or heaters. There are some tricks that you can use to have the environment to heat or cool your home, making your home environmentally friendly.

Direct Gain Heating and Cooling

Direct gain heating and cooling is actually very simple to achieve. It requires that the home be constructed of materials that have good thermal mass. The materials with the best thermal mass are dense materials such as stone, concrete, masonry or brick. Such materials will absorb and release heat slowly, thus preventing rapid temperature changes. However, anything in your home will have some form of thermal mass – even your furniture – so be aware of this. Thermal mass is best located in areas of direct sunlight and is of a dark colour, as dark colours absorb heat.

In the winter, the sun will heat the thermal mass as it enters the windows and the mass will then emit the heat throughout the rest of the room. The heat will also be stored and released throughout the night, minimising the amount of heating you will need to use. In the summer, you will need to prevent the sunlight from entering the room in order to stop the thermal mass storing unwanted heat. This is easily done through awnings, or curtains. At night, the thermal mass will cool down and release the stored coolness throughout the next day, reducing the need for air conditioning.

The Importance of Ventilation in Heating and Cooling

Ventilation is an important factor in heating and cooling, cooling especially. In summer, the hot air needs to be released from the home and this can be done simply by opening windows. However, for the most effective ventilation, there needs to be vents in the roof space to help dissipate the hot air that rises. Skylights are a perfect way to achieve this – and let more natural light into a home, or you can opt to use roof vents. Once the hot air has been drawn away, cooler air can then enter the home via vents that are located at the bottom of the home or, again, through the windows.

In winter, the opposite occurs and you wish to keep the heat within your home. Therefore it is useful to have skylights and roof vents that are able to be closed to prevent precious heat from escaping.

Passive Heating and Cooling

Passive heating and cooling is achieved in the building or renovating stages and is so named because once the principles have been installed, there is no need to think about them again. Clever passive heating and cooling can save you a fortune on your electricity bills.

Passive cooling is useful in all climates and it stops the building from absorbing too much heat while allowing the maximum of heat loss in the building. To maximise your home’s passive cooling abilities, you need to maximise ventilation, align your home to take advantage of the natural breezes, design your home so that the living areas are in the coolest areas of the home, use shade as effectively as possible, insulate the home, have the appropriate thermal mass, use light coloured materials, and use the correct windows.

When the sun enters the home, it also delivers heat. In summer, it is desirable to keep this heat out and this can be achieved by using awnings, heavy curtains, or even clever landscaping. It is particularly important that any west or east facing windows are shaded.

In winter, passive heating will give you free heat. To maximise the amount of heat that you get, you need to let as much sunlight as possible into the home. Large, double glazed windows and well designed eaves will achieve this. Again, it is important to protect the windows with curtains in order to stop heat loss from the home.

Solar Heating Systems

Solar heating is a great alternative to the traditional heating systems that can be used in the home. There are two types of solar heaters – liquid or air. Liquid systems heat either water or an antifreeze solution in a hydronic collector while air systems heat air in an air collector. Both systems use the sun to create heat which is then transferred directly to the inside of the home or to a storage system, depending on what is required. A back up system is included in case the solar heater is unable to produce enough heat.

By using solar heating, you can significantly reduce the amount of money that you spend on heating your home and help reduce the amount of pollution being released into the atmosphere.

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