The passive-house building standard relies on lots of insulation and intentional design to use as little energy as possible for heating and cooling. "Things like 'passive house' have become more ...

Question: I want to build a conventional-looking house that uses solar heating and cooling without the big solar roof collectors. I would like a spacious, open floor plan. What solar features are best ...

Following the first energy crisis in 1973 there was a rush to heat homes with the sun. It was a tinkerer's paradise, with all manner of solar heating systems migrating from garage workshops to ...

As I discussed in last week’s column ("Resilience: Dramatically Better Building Envelopes," Jan. 4), a resilient home is extremely well-insulated, so that it can be kept warm with very little ...

Jun. 12—Building a passive solar adobe home wasn't the norm in 1982. But studio artist and Zen practitioner Susan Linnell, driven by a desire for efficiency and an interest in architecture, knew what ...

Passive solar technology employs the sun’s warmth and its seasonal arcs to help control the temperature of a house. It’s based on the fact that winter sun is low in the sky and summer sun is high, so ...

Paul and Patricia Grogan, both 81, built an energy-efficient passive solar home near Dublin in the 1970s. After almost 50 years, they're listing the 4-bedroom property for $1.32 million. "There'll be ...

Solar homes create the majority of their energy from any combination of solar technologies (e.g., solar panels, solar tubes and solar windows). Most solar homes rely primarily on photovoltaic (PV) ...

John Avenson fell in love with his home more than four decades ago. The year was 1981. That’s when Avenson, a young engineer at the Bell Telephone Company, caught an ad for an event called a Passive ...