Passive Solar Design: The Foundation for Low-Energy Federal Buildings;

This fact sheet updates a similar one published in 1996 for the U.S. Department of Energy's Federal Energy Management Program. It is part of a series of fact sheets on ways that the Federal government can incorporate new energy efficiency, solar energy, and other renewable energy technologies in buildings and other facilities to save on energy costs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This factsheet describes strategies for implementing passive solar features - such as south-facing windows, daylighting, and thermal mass - into new building designs and retrofits. It also discusses how to design and build low-energy, sustainable buildings by using a 'whole-building approach' to the design process. In this approach, designers not only use passive solar techniques, they also create adesign that makes the most of the complex ways that a building's occupants, components, and materials connect and interact in order to achieve the greatest possible comfort and energy efficiency.