As homeowner, you want a pleasant climate that your house is designed around to make you feel comfortable. The building technology has to ensure that the comfort is not neglected. Feeling good and comfort are of course individual perceptions. However, it is undeniably true that the indoor climate can have a decisive influence on our well-being, physical, and mental performance. If you have to stay in overheated and stuffy rooms, then the building technology has failed and the factor of comfort and well-being is at the lowest level of the feel-good scale. Most of this can be achieved using the right building materials and designs. This is highly depended on your location. Some designs only work great in certain climate zones others are more universal. Ventilation is also an essential factor in passive house construction. In-house, air conditioning must be right. In addition, modern air conditioning technology can ensure that the humidity in the room is reduced or increased as desired. A reasonable solution is air conditioning systems that cool and dehumidify the air and, if necessary, filter out pollen-contaminated air. Scale the air conditioning according to your surplus of power during summer times.
Ventilation System with heat retention
For many climate zones with cold temperatures the issue of ventilation arises soon or later. A easy solution is a Fan with attached heat exchanger: Simple put, it is a tube with a ceramic core and a fan. The fan pushes air from one side thru the ceramic core, the heat in the air will transfer and warm the ceramic up. After about 2 minutes the fan will change its turning direction and suck air in. The cold air passes thru the warm ceramic and gets heated up. Another 2 minutes and the fan turns spin directions again, and so on…
These devices can retain up to 78% of the heat for ventilation. The amount of power required to run the fan is relative low. The system can be run on demand and when power is available.
This solution also works the other way around, if you have a hot climate and you want cool air, the above principle works the same.
As most solar systems should be optimized for the bad times you will have a lot of surplus power during the summer month. Using this for air conditioning is legit use. Scale your air conditioning according to your power production and run it during the day when the solar panels produce power to not cause drain from the batteries.
Passive Climate Construction
There is plenty of options to design a house with passive climate management features. Earthships structures have a natural ventilation system based on convection. A long (8-12m) pipe extends from the interior of the house under the berm, cooling the air by the time it gets to the comfort zone. As the hot air rises, the system creates a steady airflow – of cooler air coming in, and warmer air blowing out though a smaller vented window in the greenhouse