MODULE 2 (CHAPTER2)

USE OF SOLAR CHART IN

CLIMATIC DESIGN
SUN LIGHT AND ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN
•Mankind has always sought ways to harness the power of the sun for
their daily needs and uses.

•In designing buildings and structures, architects have constantly

focused their attention towards the sun.

•The sun has been both a bane as well as an aid for building designers:
too much sunlight will lead to excessive heating.

•On the other hand, incorporated properly into the design of the
building, sunlight can be used as a complement to light interior facades
and rooms.

•Hence architects today must not only design buildings to collect energy
from the sun to provide heating and lighting, but also to reject solar
energy when is can lead to overheating of the building.
This is known as passive solar architecture
•Passive solar design main goals are to reduce the fossil fuel
consumption of buildings as well as produce buildings that act in
conjunction with natural forces and not against them.

• Based on their knowledge of the sun and the sun’s path, design a
building so that the building can fully utilize the available solar energy

THREE ASPECTS OF PASSIVE SOLAR DESIGN

LIGHTING CONSIDERATION,
SHADING CONSIDERATION
HEATINGCONSIDERATION.

These 3 aspects largely affect the overall performance of the building in

terms of occupational and functional requirement
In studying Solar Geometry we are going to figure out how to use the
sun’s natural path in summer vs. winter to provide FREE heat in the
Winter, and to reduce required COOLING in the summer + USE IT TO
ANIMATE OUR SPACES.
WHY SOLAR GEOMETRY ?
Understanding solar geometry is essential in order to:
do passive building design (for heating and cooling)
•orient buildings properly
•understand seasonal changes in the building and its surroundings
•design shading devices
•use the sun to animate our architecture
SOLAR GEOMETRY WORKS FOR US BECAUSE THE SUN IS NATURALLY HIGH IN THE SUMMER,
MAKING IT EASY TO BLOCK THE SUN WITH SHADING DEVICES ON SOUTH FAÇADES.

AND IT IS NATURALLY LOW IN WINTER, ALLOWING THE SUN TO PENETRATE BELOW OUR
SHADING DEVICES AND ENTER THE BUILDING -WITH FREE HEAT.
The time zone is important as it affects “solar noon”. All charts are based on solar
noon not the “hour noon”. Easiest way to find solar noon for your location is to
the sunrise and sunset times (in the paper/net) and solar noon is halfway in between
SOLAR POSITION
SOLAR POSITION
•The vertical angle at which the sun’s rays strike the earth is called the
‘altitude angle’, and is a function of latitude, time of year and time of day.

•The simplest situation occurs at 12 noon on the equinox, when the sun’s rays
are perpendicular to the earth at equator. Altitude Angle = 90o - Latitude
SUN PATH DIAGRAM

These are “aerial plan views”

of the skydome.

Notice that the sun is

symmetrical about the
solstices so we get the
same lines for the spring
and fall months.
HORIZONTAL PROJECTION SUN PATH DIAGRAM

These diagrams always use “solar noon” as 12:00. You need to look at the local
time conditions to see how this aligns to the actual time.
EQUATOR
45 DEGREE NORTH
NORTH POLE
ATMOSPHERE

THE EXACT NATURE OF THE SOLAR RADIATION WE RECEIVE IS A FUNCTION OF

OUR ATMOSPHERE.
Not all solar radiation is absorbed by the
earth - much is reflected and scattered.

The image of the earth above shows more

is collected where the sun passes through
the atmosphere with less travel distance.

It is also a function of cloud cover.

Part of the reason for the decrease in intensity in WINTER is the
amount of radiation that is absorbed by the atmosphere during
the longer trip through it by oblique rays.
SOLAR AZIMUTH ANGLE
The solar azimuth angle is the azimuth angle of the sun. It is most often defined as the
angle from due north in a clockwise direction.

It can be calculated, to a good approximation, using the following formula, however angles
should be interpreted with care due to the inverse sine, i.e. x = sin−1(y) has more than one
solution, only one of which will be correct.

The following two formulas can also be used to approximate the solar azimuth angle,
however because these formulas utilize cosine, the azimuth angle will always be positive,
and therefore, should be interpreted as the angle less than 180 degrees when the hour
angle, h, is negative (morning) and the angle greater than 180 degrees when the hour angle,
h, is positive (afternoon).

The previous formulas use the following terminology:

ɸs is the solar azimuth angle.
θs is the solar elevation angle.
h is the hour angle of the present time.
δ is the current sun declination.
Φ is the local latitude.
We begin to make key layout decisions based upon exposure to sun for
heat and light.
SUN PATH -BANGALORE
JUNE SOLSTICS
DECEMBER SOLSTICS
ANNUAL VARIATION
EQUINOX (MARCH AND SEPTEMPER)