• Be active on passive opportunities

    “Passive” refers to non-mechanical systems of heating and cooling that rely on various natural forces to condition the house. For example, biological and architectural shading are passive cooling systems while solar glazing and thermal mass are passive heating strategies.

    Traditional building design and construction carefully considered opportunities for passive heating and cooling to provide a sensible, economical and simple source of natural conditioning for the home. With more advanced mechanical systems, this mindset largely disappeared in the Northeast during the latter half of the 20th Century – leaving a untapped resource for most legacy homes.

    The deep energy retrofit (DER) mindset is to understand the relationship between building components and to create an integrated retrofit design that optimizes the whole. Clearly, it makes sense to incorporate passive sources of heating and cooling into the DER plan. This requires knowledge of local climate and site conditions combined with passive design know-how.

    There are four broad, interrelated strategies for taking advantage of natural conditioning opportunities; passive heating, passive cooling, natural ventilation and day-lighting (capturing the lighting benefits of the sun without its unpleasant side effects.) There are a number of opportunities within each of these strategies, depending on site conditions and the overall retrofit plan.