Passive Solar Heating: Far From New

The Greeks were the first ones to use solar energy, somewhere around two thousand years ago.  They built their homes so that in the winter the sun’s rays would beam in, but not in the summer. Entire cities were built this way, giving heat to their home in the winter, but blocking it in the summer.This concept is still used today; we now call it passive solar. If you decide to build your home, this design can help heat it.The roof pitch helps to either let in the sun’s rays, or block it. Displayed here, the sun is where it would be in the winter months. As you can see, the rays would come in through those windows. In the summer months, the sun is higher in the sky, and the roof has a ledge that would block the sun from gaining access to the windows, therefore not heating the home.We may like to think that the concept of solar energy is a relatively new idea, but it is not. People before us have used the sun to heat their homes for many, many years. Nowadays we are using the sun to heat our homes by funding the electricity we use to do so. By using this method of passive solar, homeowners are reaping a lot of the benefits that the Earth has to offer.