I know this may not come as a surprise, but the sun is hot. Really hot. Even though it’s 150 million km away, its surface is 5,600˚ C (10,000 F) and its rays still have plenty of energy left when they reach the blue planet. Also no surprise, because we’ve loaded up our troposphere [...]
Today’s the summer solstice so a perfect time to write about the miracle of photovoltaic solar power. When we built Casa Passive, as we like to call the McDonald Road passive house, we were aiming for Passive House Plus certification, which means the house is net positive for heating and cooling (i.e., generates more [...]
It’s been five years since we broke ground on the McDonald passive house and it’s time to give this another shot. This time around, it’s going to be different in many ways. My experience with building structures that use no energy to operate began in the fall of 2016 when we secured a hillside [...]
