In summer, a dark asphalt-shingled roof takes most of the sun's beating, soaking up heat and transferring it directly into the home's attic. The attic then acts like a giant heat sink holding that heat all night long and making it nearly impossible to cool the home during hot summer days. West facing windows without any shade from summer afternoon sun take in unnecessary amounts of light and require additional air conditioning to counter the effect.
In winter, sunlight which needs to enter the home is often ignored. And even if windows are placed such that light does get in, too much of the heat is lost back out through the windows after the sun goes down!
Enter the Larry Hartweg approach to home design. Larry tells it like it is. He doesn't hold any punches about how to design a home that is properly heated and cool without the use of expensive air conditioning or furnace appliances. This is called "Passive Heating and Cooling". Though Hartweg's ideas are optimally applied when planning the construction of a new home, his principles can be used to improve existing homes. Find out more about home designs that use zero energy:
http://www.zeroenergydesign.com/
On a personal note, I wish Larry would get a better website, but the information he teaches is real and some of the best out there.
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