Starboard Solar House
Paul Shippee, Designer

This award-winning, 1550 s.f. design by Colorado Sunworks demonstrates inexpensive solar heating in an attractive conventional format. The type of passive system used is the Mass Trombe Wall: a 12 inch thick vertical wall of solid concrete, two stories high. Generous openings allow sunlight to enter for daytime lighting and provide for a view. The wall stores solar heat passing through its glass cover. The heat moves slowly through the wall reaching the interior surface in the evening. Warmth then radiates to the rooms as needed. At sundown, a self-inflating, reflective thermal curtain of five layers lowers itself automatically between the glass and the wall, insulating against long cold winter nights. The house is 85% solar-heated. The 2-story single-glass wall is framed with steel rectangular tube columns for extra structural strength against the wind. All 3 upstairs bedrooms open onto a view down to the 1st floor, which is nice enough perhaps in itself but the main purpose is to allow mild solar heat from the Trombe wall to rise into the bedrooms, then return downstairs via the cooler north side stairway, a natural convection loop.

First Floor

The floor plan features a high atrium centrally located for natural lighting. A greenhouse is optional off the dining room. The garage buffers the north side.

Second Floor

Second floor bedrooms are separated by the atrium space. A connecting balcony overlooks the downstairs.

Seasonal Modes

The warm massive wall radiates heat to rooms on winter evenings. The surrounding low concrete walls add thermal mass, aiding summer cooling: night air drawn from side windows circulates naturally (no fans) up through the wall cavity, cooling the mass, then exits at the roof hatch.

The full set of plans comes packaged with a free copy of Paul Shippee's book THE LANGUAGE OF SOLAR ENERGY: Heat Loss & Solar Gain for Buildings. All the basic concepts and methods are clearly illustrated for designing a solar heated residence. Exercises and illustrations are included to help you understand and get a working knowledge so you can design your own solar heated building. Learn how to think simply about seemingly complicated topics like heat transfer, load calculation methods, thermal storage, sun angles, solar radiation, climate, etc. Written for owner-builders and professionals alike.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
The Language of Energy -Definitions -Units -Quality of Energy -Temperature and Heat -Efficiency -Net Energy -Conversion of Energy Units
Heat Transfer Fundamentals -Conduction -Convection -Radiation
Heating Load Application -Heat Loss Calculation -Dynamics of Insulation
Solar Radiation I -Sun Angles -Insolation Values
Solar Radiation II -Climate Data -Availability of Solar Energy

Description	Price	Add to Shopping Cart
Construction Review Set*	$160
5 Sets of Blueprints	$465
Extra Set of Blueprints (only available with the purchase of above)	$40 each
Erasable Vellums	$620

* 11x17 Mini Set of Construction Drawings, marked FOR REVIEW ONLY; NOT FOR CONSTRUCTION. The cost can be deducted from future orders for blueprints or vellums, of the same plan if ordered within 6 months.