Author: Daniel D. Chiras, Ph.D.
Copyright: 2002 by Chelsea Green Publishing Company
Useful Pages: 248
Length of Index: 8 pages

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: Achieving Comfort in Any Climate
• Fundamentals of Integrated Passive Design
• Energy-Efficient Design and Construction
• Passive Solar Heating: Region-Specific Design
• Supplying Back-Up Heat Sustainably
• Passive Cooling: Region-Specific Design
• Health Matters: Optimum Air Quality in Passively Conditioned Homes
• Designing a Passively Conditioned Home and Assessing Its Performance
• Going Solar? Why Not Go All the Way?
• Appendix: Mean Percentage of Possible Sunshine
• Resource Guide
• Index

Organization:

Covers areas in this order:

• An overview of passive design principles.
• Key aspects of energy-efficient design.
• Region-specific passive solar design.
• Pros and cons of each major design strategy.
• How to optimize benefits in different regions.
• Notes on environmentally-friendly back-up heating.
• Passive cooling.
• How to maintain indoor air quality.
• A step-by-step process of designing and building passively conditioned homes.
• Key tools to implement the design process.
• Ideas that contribute to an enduring human presence.

Possible Uses:

• Learning basic principles to designing and building passively conditioned houses.
• Range of materials and techniques available for green building.
• Learning essential terminology to be able to talk intelligently with suppliers and others about basic green options.
• Examples of green homes.
• Access to green resources.

Advantages:

• Clear explanations of basics.
• Detailed explanations of options and their implications.
• Good diagrams showing building designs, positioning, and layout.
• Good references to additional resources.
• Cautions to avoid critical mistakes.

Limitations:

• Very few. The east-west orientation of houses could be worded more clearly, but the pictures pick up the slack.