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Passive solar design: where urban and building design meet

Conference Paper · June 2010

DOI: 10.2495/DN100121

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Remco Looman M.M.E. van Esch

Hogeschool Rotterdam Delft University of Technology
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 Design and Nature V 129

Passive solar design:

where urban and building design meet
R. H. J. Looman & M. M. E. van Esch
Faculty of Architecture, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands

Abstract
Urban layout has a significant impact on the outdoor microclimate in the city.
The urban fabric can limit solar access, but also has the ability to store and trap
heat. This may lead to uncomfortable or even unhealthy situations outdoors. The
indoor thermal environment can be controlled independent of dynamic outdoor
conditions. However, this is undesirable from a comfortable and sustainable
point of view. It is therefore preferable to find passive building strategies to
support a comfortable thermal environment outdoors as well as indoors.
In temperate climates, buildings facing south are preferable, as they yield the
largest solar gain in the heating season and the smallest in summer. However,
south facing row houses imply east-west running streets, which have larger street
irradiance in summer – possibly leading to heat stress – and a smaller street
irradiance in winter compared to north-south running streets. In addition to
orientation, the height to width ratio of streets is also of great importance since it
defines the obstruction angle; buildings may cast shadows on the street or on the
opposite building facade resulting in reduced solar gains.
The full paper discusses the viability of passive solar heating strategies in
residential buildings in The Netherlands under the influence of typical urban
density and layout. In addition, the paper gives some guidelines for the
integration of passive solar heating strategies for dwellings in different urban
situations. The effects of orientation and street width of an urban canyon on the
percentage of irradiated street and facade areas, for different seasons in The
Netherlands, will be discussed in another paper by the authors.
Keywords: passive solar design, urban design, solar access, building design,
passive solar heating.

WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 138, © 2010 WIT Press
www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)
doi:10.2495/DN100121
130 Design and Nature V

1 Introduction
With passive solar design you benefit from the heating potential of the sun.
Careful tuning of solar radiation collection, thermal conservation and diurnal
storage decides to what extent solar radiation can contribute to annual space
heating [1–3].
The principle of passive solar heating is based on the absorption of short-
wave solar radiation by (building) materials that in turn disperse long-wave heat
radiation to indoor spaces. This can be done most effectively by placing the
materials exposed to the sun behind a layer of glass, for glass transmits short-
wave solar radiation but reflects long-wave heat radiation. The obvious way to
allow solar radiation directly into your building is to strategically place windows
facing the sun and using the space to be heated as the solar collector device. The
addition of thermal mass and insulation ensures that the collected heat during the
daytime is sufficient to bridge diurnal cycles.
In an urban setting, solar radiation collection is interfered by shadows cast by
neighbouring buildings. Urban density and layout determine the extent of this
interference [4]. On street level this may lead to reduced solar access which may
lead to discomfort. For buildings this implies less solar gains. In dense urban
setup lower levels of the building facade are less exposed to the sun. Larger and
elevated windows can compensate for this loss in solar radiation collection. In
addition, different roof shapes may optimise solar exposure of the facade and the
street in a specific urban setting (e.g. orientation and street width).
With the aid of building simulations both solar contribution to monthly
heating and solar exposure of transparent openings distributed over the facade
are studied for different building types and urban settings.
The effects of orientation and street width of an urban canyon on the
percentage of irradiated street and facade area, for different seasons in The
Netherlands, are discussed in another paper.

2 Urban and building parameters

The urban and building types as distinguished in this paper represent common
practice in The Netherlands. Street width is taken from typical values for
historical inner-city developments up to the 17th century city extensions, Dutch
post-war low rise developments and recently developed Vinex neighbourhoods
[5, 6]. The terraced dwelling is the most common in both existing stock and new
housing developments in The Netherlands [7].

2.1 Design parameters

Studied street widths are 10, 15, 20 and 25 m. Two orientations are studied: east-
west running streets with the back facade facing south and north-south running
streets with the back facade facing west. The back facade is the facade with the
largest transparent openings. Three different roof shapes are studied: gable, shed
and flat (figure 1).

WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 138, © 2010 WIT Press
www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)
 Design and Nature V 131

Figure 1: Roof shape and street orientation.

Figure 2: Determination of obstruction angles.

Figure 2 shows the obstruction angle in a vertical plane (α). This angle is
calculated with simple trigonometry. The obstruction angle in a vertical plane
depends on the street width (s), the height (hob) and depth (d) of the obstruction,
the shape of the roof, the distance to the obstruction (x), the view point (hvp) and
the sun’s azimuth (β).
The building shape and layout is based on a reference dwelling described by
SenterNovem [7], an agency of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, and can
be seen as a schematic representation of the standard of current and expected

WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 138, © 2010 WIT Press
www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)
132 Design and Nature V

building design in The Netherlands. The three-storey building has a total gross
floor area little over 123 m2 and a volume of approximately 428 m3. The top
floor is in use as a habitable zone. The lowest and highest point of the top floor
for both the gable and shed roof is respectively 5.72 m and 10.62 m. The flat roof
has a highest point of 8.17 m.
The reference dwelling is constructed from massive building elements
(concrete and brickwork). Furthermore it meets typical thermal insulation
requirements (i.e. Rc = 3.0 m2K/W for external walls and ground floor slab; Rc =
4.0 m2K/W for the roof construction) [8]. All transparent openings are
constructed from high-efficiency double-pane glazing (Uglass = 1.27 W/m2K; g-
value = 0.6).
Improvements to enhance passive solar performance are achieved through
improved thermal insulation of the opaque elements (i.e. Rc = 4.0 m2K/W and
Rc = 5.0 m2K/W) in order to retain collected heat within the building. In
addition, solar dwelling 1 has enlarged transparent openings at the back facade
and solar dwelling 2 accommodates windows at the top floor (figure 3).

Figure 3: Typical facades of terraced dwellings (here with gable roof).

2.2 Calculation method

Simulations are performed with the aid of TRNSYS, a transient simulation tool
that simulates thermal energy systems, such as buildings. To assure integral
assessment of energy performance of different concepts, building volume and
footprint are kept constant.
Building simulations are performed with reference climate data for De Bilt,
The Netherlands (52˚ 06’ N and 5˚ 11’ E), which contains measured data for the
year 1995. The sun reaches its highest altitude of 61˚ at noon at the start of
summer and its lowest altitude of 14˚ at noon at the start of winter. Mean
ambient temperatures range from 2.2˚C in winter to 16.9˚C in summer.
The influence of occupancy is kept constant during simulations. Time-
independent internal heat gains and ventilation rates (based on minimal
requirements) are applied together with a fixed temperature set point of 20˚C for
the habitable zones.

WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 138, © 2010 WIT Press
www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)
 Design and Nature V 133

3 Results
A total number of 90 simulations have been conducted with the four different
design parameters: dwelling type, roof shape, street width and orientation. A
selection of the outcomes is presented below.

3.1 Passive solar heating contribution

Figures 4 to 6 show passive solar heating contribution, the percentage of the heat
demand that is met by solar gains, for different building types and different
orientations at a street width of 15 m.
Figure 4 shows that increased thermal conservation and enlarged transparent
openings have significant impact on passive solar heating contribution. The
effect is notable during the whole heating season (from October to April) with
absolute increased contribution varying from 3% to 34% (relative contribution
increase varies from 86% to 153%) for the solar dwelling 2 (sol2) compared to
the reference dwelling.
Note that there is an optimum in increasing the amount of glazing in a
building since typically windows are worse insulators than opaque elements. The
use of thermal shutters may become beneficial here. Thermal shutters are placed
in front of windows when the sun sets in order to improve its thermal resistance.
With north-south running streets the back facade of the dwelling faces west.
West facing dwellings have a decreased passive solar heating contribution
because the sun’s altitude is lower. The absolute decrease in contribution during
the heating period varies and can become up to 13% for the reference dwelling
(figure 5) and up to 24% for the solar dwelling 2 (figure 6). Relative decrease
can be as much as 40% for both types of dwellings. The west facing reference
dwelling shows a slight increment in solar gains during May and June. This can
be explained from relative high solar radiation levels for west-facing vertical
planes from the used climate data set during those months in combination with
the relative low sun angles when the sun is in the west.

Figure 4: Passive solar heating contribution for different building types with
gable roofs in east-west running streets [s = 15m].

WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 138, © 2010 WIT Press
www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)
134 Design and Nature V

Figure 5: Passive solar heating contribution for the reference dwelling at

different orientations [s = 15m].

Figure 6: Passive solar heating contribution for solar dwelling 2 at different

orientations [s = 15m].

A final remark should be made on the necessity of proper solar shading

measures when designing from a passive solar heating point of view in order to
prevent issues of overheating in summer. Solar contributions of 100% as seen in
figures 4 to 6 indicate that solar gains are sufficient to meet heat demands. It
gives no indication of possible overheating issues.

3.2 Solar exposure of transparent openings

Figures 7 to 12 present the solar exposure of transparent openings in a given

urban setting as a fraction of solar exposure in a non-shaded situation. Figure 7
to 9 show solar exposure fractions for the ground floor for different street widths
and figure 10 to 12 show solar exposure of the top floor for different street
widths.
As can be seen from the figures, solar exposure increases for increasing street
width in most months of the heating period. With a shed roof significant increase

WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 138, © 2010 WIT Press
www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)
 Design and Nature V 135

is notable at smaller street widths and at lower sun angles when compared to the
gable or flat roof. This can be explained from the increased distance to the point
of obstruction as it is at the far end of the building when this obstruction has a
shed roof. The flat roof has a slight advantage over the gable roof at a street
width of 20m and 25m in January and November. At increased street widths the
ratio of the distance to the obstruction (x) and its height (hob) of flat roof shaped
buildings allow lower sun angles to radiate the facade when compared to gable
roof shaped buildings that have a higher obstruction height but also know a
longer distance to the obstruction. No significant difference is found between the
different roof types in December, when the lowest sun angles of the year occur.
Solar exposure of the top floor of the gable roofed dwelling collects less solar
radiation during the heating period when compared to the shed or flat roofed
dwelling. This can be explained from the fact that the windows on the top floor
of a gable roof are sloped and therefore have a smaller vertical collection area
that faces the sun at lower sun angles.

Figure 7: Solar exposure fraction of the ground floor of a gable roof.

Figure 8: Solar exposure fraction of the ground floor of a shed roof.

WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 138, © 2010 WIT Press
www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)
136 Design and Nature V

Figure 9: Solar exposure fraction of the ground floor of a flat.

Figure 10: Solar exposure fraction of the top floor of a gable roof.

Figure 11: Solar exposure fraction of the top floor of a shed roof.

WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 138, © 2010 WIT Press
www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)
 Design and Nature V 137

Figure 12: Solar exposure fraction of the top floor of a flat roof.

Figure 13: Percentage of irradiated street surface at noon of an east-west

running street with shed roofed dwellings, for different street
widths.

In order to increase the share of solar gains in an effort to meet heat demands
street width can be varied between the front and back side of a building together
with variable roof top design of the obstructions. These measures on the urban
scale can be complemented with measures on the building scale such as high
placed windows. In addition, (a part of) the top floor could be accommodated to
function as a solar collector device for the whole building. Stored heat in
building mass or air can be distributed throughout the building.

3.3 Solar access of streets

Figure 13 shows the influence of street width on the irradiation of the street. As
can be expected, larger street widths yield larger percentages of irradiation. The
impact decreases at larger street widths. Figure 8 also shows that the influence of
street width is highest in winter and decreases towards the summer. The figure
presents the results for an east-west running street lined with shed roof
dwellings, but the trends are similar for the other set-ups.

WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 138, © 2010 WIT Press
www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)
 138 Design and Nature V

4 Conclusions
Larger transparent openings and improved insulation are evidently beneficial to
the contribution of solar gains in meeting residential heat demand in The
Netherlands. So are south facing windows (in the Northern Hemisphere).
In order to benefit from the heating potential of the sun in an urban
environment, shadows cast by neighbouring objects should be kept to a
minimum. From this point of view, shed roof design proofs to be beneficial over
gable and flat roofs when it comes to solar exposure of lower floor levels. The
advantage of shed roof design is most evident at smaller street widths (10 m and
15 m). The impact of roof design becomes of less importance at larger street
widths (from 25 m).
Windows at the top floor of a building are less obstructed by identically
shaped buildings in their surroundings. Therefore they collect solar radiation,
even at lower sun angles in winter. This makes such windows beneficial in a
passive solar heating strategy.

5 Outlook
A next step in this research can be the examination of optimal values for
orientation, street width, building roof top design and window size and position.
This may help architects and urban planners in optimising their future plans from
a perspective of passive solar design. In addition the knowledge can be
transformed for the case of passive solar design optimisation when restructuring
existing urban environments.
This knowledge can be extended with other possible impacts in an urban
microclimate such as the inclusion of air flow patterns and pollution in relation
to possible (natural) ventilation strategies.

References
[1] Hestnes, A.G., et al. [ed], Solar Energy Houses - strategies, technologies,
examples (2nd edition), James & James, 2003.
[2] Goulding, J.R., et al. [ed], Energy in Architecture - The European Passive
Solar Handbook, B. T. Batsford, 1993.
[3] Crosbie, M.J. [ed.], The Passive Solar Design and Construction Handbook,
John Wiley & Sons, 1998.
[4] Knowles, R.L. & Berry, R.D., Solar Envelope Concepts – moderate density
building applications, Solar Energy Information Data Bank, 1980.
[5] Berghauser Pont, M. & Haupt, P., Spacemate: the spatial logic of urban
density, DUP Science: Delft, 2004.
[6] Boeijenga, J., Mensink, J., et al., Vinex atlas, 010 Publishers: Rotterdam,
2008
[7] Senternovem, Referentiewoningen nieuwbouw [in Dutch], Senternovem,
2006.
[8] Hameetman, P., Toolkit duurzame woningbouw – voor ontwikkelaars,
gemeenten en ontwerpers, Aeneas: Boxtel, 2005.

WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 138, © 2010 WIT Press
www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)

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