Principles of passive solar architecture as means of improving health and thermal comfort aspects of indoor environment

Abstract

The estimates are that we spend majority of our lifetime indoors. Therefore, the quality of indoor environment is crucial to our health. Thermal comfort is amongst the most energy-related aspects of comfort since the energy requirements for heating and cooling refer to more than a half of energy needs in buildings. Passive solar architecture, emerged from the archetypal builders' responses to the natural environment, by using the energy of the sun for heating and cooling in the most economical and rational way- by applying the laws of physics. The key passive solar architectural principles aimed at achieving thermal comfort presented in the paper are: adaptive thermal comfort (the comfortable indoor temperature levels adjusting to the outside temperature), thermal zoning (variety in disposition and orientation of the different functional zones), and thermal mass (using building materials with ability to effectively store heat), all aimed at enhancing energy efficiency and providing a healthy indoor environment.