Yes, if they face in the right direction and are properly exposed to the winter sun and shaded from the summer sun. See the section on solar energy in the overview "Insulation & House As A System" that can be found in the Nuts & Bolts section of the web site.
We think of anything covered with fibreglass as being almost invincible, yet whether it is a fibreglass boat or a deck, this mixture of glass fibres and epoxy resins has one unrelenting enemy: UV rays from the sun.In the photo you see what a fibreglass skin looks like when put over wood, in a ma...
Radiant Heating and Convection Heating are the two primary types of ways we heat our houses. FORCED AIR HEATINGConvection heating means moving hot air -- what we usually call a forced air heating system simply heats air and moves it around the house through a system of fans and ducts. Forced air...
Gregory in Grand Pre, Nova Scotia has a hot sun room while the rest of the house is relying on the furnace. How can he use the heat from the sun room in the rest of the house?You have to move the hot air around.You can buy "through the wall" fans that are actually made for moving heat from a woo...
One of the problems with outdoor spot lights is that you are often limited in where you can direct the light because either the mounting won't swivel to where you need it, or you have to avoid pointing upward because water will get into the 120volt socket.Canlet has come out with the greatest lit...
Yes. Too many windows facing south in an ordinary house can cause over heating. A window area on the south side of not more than 6 per cent of the total floor space of your house (counting a heated basement) should cause no problems. More than that and you have created half a solar house -...
We visited a demonstration solar energy house in Guelph, Ontario and Teresa Paul from Nexus Solar Corp. who designed it. In this very standard looking house we could see the bringing together of all the basic concepts of solar energy for both winter and summer. To emphasise that this did no...
If the sun has unobstructed access to the inside of your house through lots of window space, and if you have a well-insulated house, the sun can cause overheating in the summer and sometimes even in the winter.
If the south-facing window area of your house is more than 6 per cent of the floor ar...
One viewer wants to protect his parents from flying golf balls because they live alongside a golf course. They have already lost more than one window.
They probably have three choices:
-- subsidize lessons for the golfers,
-- build a barrier in front of their windows, or
-- put 'security film...
The sun's energy is free. It's collecting it that costs money.
There are two different ways of collecting solar energy; actively and passively.
Active solar heating systems collect the sun's heat and transport it into the house where it is used to heat water or living space. Usually there is a...
