The Basics of Passive Solar 🏡 Clerestories 🏡 What they are, and how they work.
Clerestory definitionally means - "windows above eye level", but in passive solar house design, they are what typical exemplifies what a energy efficient house looks like.
These windows, high up on the wall, usually near the peak of the roof are both the greatest thing when designed and installed correctly (for heating, ventilation and light), and the worst thing when it comes cleaning and operating.
Clerestories placed in the middle of the house, with a split roof allows for sunlight to get into the back of the house. It can help warm what would be a dingy dark corner of the house. In the summer months, it can also be used to extreme advantage for ventilation. Hot air rises, and since these windows are way up at the top, what better place to let all that hot air out?
You do not see clerestories very often in houses. This is because tract houses builders do not spend any time on changing their designs to fit its orientation, and further, the fast easy way to build a roof is with trusses. And clerestories require a very different roof build out. Fortunately, for DIYers the roof system that you use in making a split roof, is far easier to build by yourself.
There are house design constraints you have to deal with too. To have clerestories in the middle of the house, you need to design a supporting wall / series of beams running down the middle of your home. It isn't hard to design a supporting wall such as this, it just takes precedence in the overall house design.
The bane of clerestories is cleaning. You basically need the tallest of ladders, and to move it across the entire house to clean these windows. And although electric motor operated windows are often much more expensive, it will be some of the best money spent. As, what happens most often is that you try to operate the windows with a long stick... and it just doesn't work out well, and so the windows get left open or left closed. When they really are the most important windows in the house as far as air circulation.
When the days are hot, you open the clerestories in the evening and let all the heat flow out. Heat rises, so when you open these windows they act to pull all the heat out, without electricity. Then you close them up in the morning to keep the cool of the night inside.
And when the days are cold, you make sure the blinds are all open and all that warm sunlight streams into your house all day.
If you live in a really hot climate, you can build your house so that your clerestories face a different direction then south. Say you face them north, then you just get nice lighting all year round, and can use the windows to vent out the heat.
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STOPTwo relatively simple solutions to the problems of clerestory windows are low ceilings, and catwalks. They are really essential to good home design
Thanks!
I wouldn't call them simple... but as you said, "relatively". The create their own problems (like stairs, where to locate them).
I really like mezzanines built under the clerestories. But the flow of the house is more important. As in, it doesn't always work out.
And the high ceiling vs low ceilings. The high ceilings are totally worth it if you are in a climate that gets hot.
damn all these trade offs. ^_^
Efficiency is one of my favorite concepts.
In a simple way we can greatly improve the energy efficiency of a home. As you have described very well.
What is interesting is that these things I am writing about today, I learned from books that are 50 years old.
Still, the houses that we build today are extremely inefficient. But, to save $10,000 per house, we spend $100,000s over the lifetime of the house. It is very sad.
I love stuff like this. Thank you so much for these detailed and informational posts. The world would be an easier place to live if people understood and implemented stuff like this more often.
Me too. I would like everyone to know this stuff.
I would like the world to know what they are missing.
That the first question to the agent is, show us houses with good passive solar features.
Nicely done once again! Thanks for all of the great ideas!
You are welcome. More to come.
Good information. Harness that fireball!
Thank you for reading
thanks for the detail explanation, I always wonder how it works! hehe
you are welcome
Your house design lectures remind me how the government pretty much controls the architecture of the house design.
You literally have to apply for a special permit in order to design your own house and it may very well be rejected, so pretty much the government monopolizes the design too.
You can only build houses from the government template list, no customization.
I have much experience in this. Having to explain to a snot-nosed kid out of college what is best construction practices. And that kid, with no experience, can decide to make your life miserable. If you go outside the box of "normal" then you are just asking for trouble.
(man this steemit lag is really getting annoying ,sorry for double posts but it doesnt show up for me for several minutes)
Yes, I saw a post here somebody wrote something about how in Brazil the government forces you to ask for permission before selling a house. Well that is pretty much all governments nowadays, I semi-work in real estate and I never seen a government in Europe at least that has unregulated housing sector. I mean I am not talking about fire and health regulation for which you might make a case for.
I am talking about literally nose picking into everything. I literally got fined more than a year ago for missing 1 document for my house that I bought then, which the previous owner messed up, but I got the blame for it since the government's database pointed towards me.
You can't make this up and I know pretty much all regulations in the housing sector, and it wasnt even a permit thing I just didnt have that information before buying the house and then I got the blame after it.
How the hell are other people supposed to deal with it, who know nothing about it. It seems like a kindengarten level of management going on of the population, ask for permission for anything, no independent action, no free thought.
Thanks for this post @builderofcastles. It was a good review and I use this principle in my house! I have two little 2 x 2 windows and in the summer they keep the inside below a hundred or a hundred and forty!
I found a lot of people don't even know the basics. So, I have been trying to write a string of articles on the little basics that help out a house so much.
Too bad this post is beyond its payout. I will get another written here soon. Thanks for reading.
What you are doing is must! Keep at it!