SUNROOMS – ADDITIONS
SUNROOMS – PATIO ENCLOSURES
Patio enclosures, sunrooms and sunspaces, solar collectors, of this type are beneficial in supplementing home heat gain. Turning solar heat into comfortable and usable heat source just makes good sense.
Its no wonder more families today are looking into creating a solar collecting sunroom for their home. The beauty here, lies in the fact, that no matter what these energy tycoons can dream up to charge us more money, year after year, the suns energy will always be free. The investment make Sunrooms and sunspaces a rewarding investment .
GOOD REASONS…
- The return on investment on sunrooms is very stable and will increase over time
very popular among individuals who are looking for homes that have these types of amenities - finally the use of solar energy brings tax credits that will affect the bottom line. Not to mention the very many uses you’ll enjoy year after year…
- Sunrooms and homes just go hand in hand in today’s world of energy consciousness! ….wouldn’t you say?
Renewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable (naturally replenished).
In 2006, about 8% of global final energy consumption came from re-new-able energy sources, with 13% coming from traditional biomass, which is mainly used for heating, and 3% from hydroelectricity. New re-newables (small hydro, modern biomass, wind, solar, geothermal, and bio-fuels) accounted for another 2.4% and are growing very rapidly.
Passive solar technologies are a means of using sunlight for useful energy without use of active mechanical systems (as contrasted to active solar). Such technologies convert sunlight into usable heat (water, air, thermal mass), causing air-movement for ventilation. An example are sunrooms built on the south side of a building. Passive cooling is the use of the same design principles to reduce summer cooling requirements.
CUSTOM SUNROOMS AND SUN SPACES
TROMBE WALL
A widely used building feature in many homes throughout many countries is a sun-facing wall patented in 1881 by its inventor, Edward Morse. Popularized in 1964 by French engineer Felix Trombe and architect Jacques Michel.
It is a massive wall separated from the outdoors by glazing and an air space. Absorbing solar energy and releasing it selectively towards the interior at night. Glass sunrooms have similar characteristics.
Even single pane glass worked for this process because glass is transparent to visible light but less so to infra-red radiation (heat).
Modern variations include insulating glass to retain more of the stored solar heat, sometimes operable vents allow convective heat transfer to the indoors.
Modern Trombe walls have vents added to the top and bottom of the air gap between the glazing and the thermal mass.
Heated air flows via convection into the building interior. The vents have one-way flaps which prevent convection at night, thereby making heat flow strongly directional. This kind of design is an indirect passive thermal collector. By moving the heat away from the collection surface, it greatly reduces thermal losses at night and improves net heat gain. When heat is not called for In the summer months.The vents to the interior are closed all the time.
Most sunrooms and designs are generally built with a doorway. This seals off the sunroom structure from the rest of the house. Hence, you may find yourself keeping the doors open even in the winter time, as heat collects and disperses into the rest of the home.
This is all the more reason why all sunrooms should have operable ridge vents allowing for natural convection for heat to rise up and out of the sunroom especially during the summer months.
SUNROOM SOLAR COLLECTORS
Colorado Sunrooms and greenhouses have become very popular.
Building a solar greenhouse, or attaching a sunroom to your home is a wise decision, the benefits are endless. The return on value is nothing short of being a worthwhile investment.
