Passive solar technology includes passive solar heating and daylighting. To use solar energy in a home or business, minimal technology needs to be employed, or none at all – homeowners can simply take advantage of south-facing windows for natural lighting and direct gain heating. To capture and store heat from
sunlight in a home, certain materials can be put in place to maximize the sun’s heat absorption. Floors and walls made of these materials will slowly absorb heat from the sun during the day and slowly release it at night.
To capture and redistribute the sun’s heat, homeowners might create a sunspace, which like a greenhouse, employs glass or glazing to warm a south-facing room, and then redistributes the heat to the rest of the building using a ventilation system. A trombe wall, which is a wall constructed with heat-absorbing materials and painted black, can also be used to absorb, store, and then release the sun’s heat.
