Style: June 04, 2021

30 Style | Home
H
arnessing the warmth
from the sun to heat
your home can have a
positive effect in that it
reduces dampness and
condensation while also
reducing heating costs. The
key to passive heating is
two-fold. First, you need to
capture the right amount
of sunlight through your
windows, and then you need
to manage that source of
free heat within your home
so it is kept at a pleasant
temperature. This is achieved
by using a combination
of smart design and good
insulation, which in turn
reduces overheating.
New & old
With a new build, one of the key factors is the orientation of the
home to maximise efficiency for heating in winter and cooling in
summer. You need to make sure you get plenty of sun streaming in
during winter, for instance. To do this, you need to make sure your
home is designed to maximise the sun’s warmth by having northfacing
windows. You also need to look at the natural environment.
Are there neighbouring trees or buildings that could block the sun?
Passive heating can be improved in an existing home without
making major alterations. The most common way is to insulate the
roof cavity. I’m a fan of doing double or triple layers in this area,
up to 30cm, because it makes a major difference. Make sure you
insulate under the floor too. If you are relining walls, do consider
double insulating these – it makes a tremendous difference to the
amount of heat you lose from the home.
Transfer it
If you are renovating, consider
installing a heat transfer system.
These are specifically designed to use
excess heat and send it around the
home to make it a cosy temperature
throughout. This means that when
the sun is warming up your northfacing
room, you can send that heat
to the cooler rooms. It is also good
for those who have heating in a main
room, like a gas or wood fire.
An underutilised source of heating
is a home’s roof cavity – particularly
if it’s an older home where the
building’s orientation to the sun wasn’t
always a consideration. Transferring
the heat from the roof cavity into a
living area or such is a wonderful way
to use this heat, especially on a frosty
day when the sky is blue and sunny.
Get glazed
Double glazing is two panes of glass with an insulating layer of inert
gas or air between them. Installing double glazing can help reduce
heat loss through glass by about 70 per cent, which means that the
sun’s warmth stays around in your home instead of disappearing
through the window. It also means you have less condensation on
your window panes because the seal stops it from building up.
Framing is important – plastic or wood are less likely to attract
condensation than aluminium frames. If you have an older home,
you can get double glazing retrofitted.