p><strong>For heating and cooling an off grid home, passive systems are always best, followed by the simple ones. By that we mean – design the home as energy efficient and air tight as possible and start with the basic principles of passive heating and cooling. </strong>That means orienting the home for solar gain in winter but ensuring sufficient shading to avoid over heating in summer. This page is your best starting place – </p> <p><strong><a href="/guides/2260/how-to-build-passive-solar-homes-episode-1-of-the-ecohome-building-guide/" target="_blank">All about Passive Solar Home Construction </a></strong></p> <p>That will help you understand the basic concepts, then you could <a href="/companies/" target="_blank">find a local home designer near you in the ecohome green building directory</a>. You can search professions by category and location to hopefully find a designer familiar with your regional climate.  A few key principles to remember – passive is better than active, simple is better than complicated, and moving parts fail. If you go in armed with that realization you can probably avoid a few pitfalls. You can also <a href="/guides/query/off+grid/" target="_blank">find out how to build an off grid home in the ecohome building guide</a>, type any topic you like in the search bar. Good luck with your build.   </p