The Solar Envelope is a three dimensional envelope on a site which ensures adjacent neighbors a specified minimum direct solar access time per day throughout the year. The solar envelope was developed as a tool to give buildings in an urban setting the mutual opportunity to employ passive and active solar design strategies. Parametric computeraided-design (CAD) environments significantly ease t...

The highest priority of so called, projected passive houses is to meet the appropriate energy demand. Every single material and layer which is injected into a dwelling has a certain energy quantity stored. The passive houses include optimized insulation levels with minimal thermal bridges, minimum of air leakage through the building, utilization of passive solar and internal gains, and good cir...

As part of the model validation and development activities of a European research initiative in the area of passive solar architecture, a validation/calibration methodology has been developed which emphasises the use of empirical data in the model proving process and, if necessary, model calibration before use. This procedure has been applied to the ESP-r system in order that it might be used t...

A computer-aided design tool for assisting the designer to set appropriate passive solar systems for heating and cooling is presented. The system is based on a knowledge base oriented design process (KBDP). The knowledge base stores design guidelines and procedural methods for determining the passive systems that best suit the local climatic conditions. This tool is aimed to be used already at ...