Passive Solar Still Shines!

During the first decade of this new house build; i.e., between 2011 and 2020, this passive solar house cooled very well during the evening and overnight, allowing undisturbed sleep, even covered by a duvet in bed.

I would close the windows and blinds, (some thermal) during high heat summer daylight hours, then when the sun had gone down, with cool air descending from the Fundy shore a few kilometres distant, flowing over the top of the North Mtn downwards, I’d open every window in the house and put an ole Sears box fan in a screen door to aid in the air exchange. In the early morning, the house interior had cooled to nearly 70°F or 21°C, or thereabouts. However, during the last 3 summers, we have entered an extremely dangerous climatological crisis, never before experienced, with many more near mid-30°C daytime temps. To top this off, many of those daytime temperatures were accompanied by high humidity.

The ‘air conditioning’ I dreamt up is working better than I projected. @ R5/inch, these aluminum foil-covered 2-1/2″ panels are R12.5. This idea came to mind when I recalled how old English manor houses had wooden storm shutters on the window exteriors. I’ve been using this idea for my modest 425 sq. ft. hobby/workaholic woodshop for 6 years. 🤫 The early morning winter December to March period temps are now 65°F, rather than 58°F throughout, without overnight supplementary heating.

The image above is for the three woodshop windows.

Below, is the front of the long skinny house in mid-winter, circa 2017, before the panels were shifted from inside on the windows to the outside. Massive window condensation was the result of using these R12.5 panels inside, sigh. The poplar sills have been resanded and revarnished.

Unfortunately, NS still blindly follows the National Building Code, without leading, as “they” did in 1758, with the first parliamentary democracy in NA. Can we NOW establish a building code of our own; such as, each new building *must* be passive solar and face south with 8-10% of the conditioned floor space dedicated to south-facing glazing. It’s this head-in-the-sand ostrich myopic view, which, has landed humanity, mostly in the more highly educated, but, increasingly more ignore-ant ( as Alan Watts defines) West, with these looming climate/ecological catastrophes unfolding.

As you can sea, there’s still plenty of natural light filtering through the top awning windows, sufficient enough to maintain plant growth for the Triumph variety of Dieffenbachia (also known as Leopard Lily or Mother-In-Law’s Tongue) and the two Madagascar Dragon Trees (Dracaena marginata). All four plants were purchased in Kentville 16 years ago, thriving in this light with only rare plant re-orienting. None have ever been repotted! 🤠 Maybe this summer …

This arrangement will only be necessary above 27°C or 80°F, since below that, the R12.5 panels will be stored in a roped-off area. Another issue this house has, despite the generous 27″ roof overhang, is that in late August and early September, while the E-air-th is tilting away from our sun, the sunlight is entering the window area more intensely and warming the house interior. It’s these mechanical, simple, passive solutions, that can make that time of year more liveable, especially as occupants become more elderly.

Lest I forget, this spring, I entered my final quarter of life.

My snowplow guy retired last fall leaving the 800′ driveway in the lurch. So, with no other imminent solution on the horizon, we purchased an inexpensive blade and front-mounted hitch for the vintage Tacoma pickup.

This image below of the digital snake, (re-calibrated) shows how well this simple solution works, while some of us await further ‘help’ from the provincial government as this ole house uses no heat pump, solar panels, thermal water set-up, nor central AC … passive solar works. It’s also the least costly initially, requiring the least annual maintenance.

When I visited China in 2011, all new apartment buildings *did* face south. Imagine that, eh?! 😛

When I typed this post in June of 2024, my intuitive feeling is that the entirety of the human situation, has entered into a life or death situation. We can evolve as a civilization, but only through conscious choices. I recall an early tagline from the David Suzuki Foundation: “Solutions are in Our Nature” and yes, I have his t-shirt.

Those choices will be different in many countries as the land-water-air environment, as well as the awareness that people allow to filter through the greed-driven mass media propaganda, will dictate the necessary working solutions. We will resist globalization and tyrannical electronic enslavement by unelected sources. The underlying cause of all this degradation on our belovèd sphere, the wars, the slavery, the sexism, the patriarchalism, the waste, the consumption, is not an over-populated planet; it is the economic system with its competitive underlying principles of private property and personal profit. Never mind that the natural world has always existed in cooperative mode. Interesting dichotomy, huh?! Yeah, still in love with interrobangs. It is those aspects of our capital intensive exchange system that are unsustainable. Ever seen a happy billionaire? To remain silent, to wait for others to make the necessary changes, is to abrogate THE sacred duty to ourselves, our children, our gran’urchins, our fellow man, even strangers, indeed all forms of life, from whence we are unable to take our next breath. It is these “silent partners”, from that place where we arise, passing through this E-air-thly plane of manifest existence, that give of life ~ freely.

While the above rosa rugosa 3″ blossom is unrelated to this post, I would be remiss in not inserting the largest early bloom from a solitary wild bush I’ve ever seen, likely bird-dropping. btw, rosa rugosa is free for late summer picking, is an excellent source of vitamin C, having 10x more of the scurvy-preventing molecule than the same-sized glass of FL orange juice. All one must do is pick ’em, process ’em that day, then lay ’em out to dry. C’est tout.

However, by posting, I am afforded this opportunity to show what I witnessed on a winter hike up the eastern side of the La Have River trail, Lunenburg Cty. of Nova Scotia in Feb. of 2023. It’s an ice circle formed by the upriver flow of the incoming tide and the downflow of meltwater, normally occurring in the river. Neither of us had ever seen a phenomenon like this. It spun counterclockwise, ever so slowly. The tide is coming in against the shore on the right, while the river downflow is in the main channel on the image left. My estimate is that the circle was about 10M in OD.

Several years ago, I felt I had nothing more to add to this 14-year-old blog. However, since change is the only constant in The Universe, I too, have changed my mind. Men can do that too, you know! 🤫

I sincerely appreciate your reading down this far. 🙏

I AM John Gabriel Ötvös, aka jayöh.

PS: The paupers in the boardroom at WordPress will now make us pay to add colour to the text; even to decide where we will post this latest addition in our long-established site. I am unable to even copy and paste coloured signatures, alas. The monetization from our stateside overlords, never ends, as with the massive ads now on YT. andsoitgoes …