This paper shows how thoughtful design strategy, coupled with sensitivity to construction details, can produce an affordable, effective passive solar home in areas subject to cloudy winters and heavy snowfall. The paper shares the development of this home from inception to completion in one year. A primary goal in building this home is to construct an affordable, energy efficient, passive solar house that looks like any other house on the block and to introduce the general public to the principles of energy-conscious passive solar design strategies and sustainable construction techniques. Hancock, Michigan is a challenging site for solar construction. Hancock, and the adjacent city of Houghton, are located in the middle of the Keweenaw Peninsula, that finger of land that juts out into Lake Superior in the Upper Peninsula.
Winters are generally long, gloomy, and snowy.
The house strongly relates the building to site, climate, local building materials, and the sun and thereby establishes a relationship to the natural process that offers potential for an inexhaustible supply of energy. Passive solar heating and cooling systems simplify rather than complicate life because they are simple in concept and use, have no moving parts, require little or no maintenance, and do not generate thermal pollution. The site chosen is a pair of lots in a wooded, plated subdivision in the northern part of Hancock. Adequate southern exposure and deciduous trees are a prime consideration in selecting the lots. The lots backed onto a large wooded commons area and this enhances the rural feel of this location.