Passive Solar for heating and air treatment

Passive solar design can potentially be integrated with aquaponics and other water features to provide benefits in terms of energy reductions, air flow and conditioning.

Greenhouses using passive solar techniques require far less heating. Designed properly, greenhouses in Canada can leverage passive solar and thermal mass from aquaponics to reduce supplemental heating demand to about 30% of the time. This alone can increase net profits by about 8-11% against Alberta Agriculture greenhouse averages.

One of the benefits of Sprung structures is their airtight quality, reducing heating needs. Passive solar design and greenhouse elements incorporated into Solace Longhouses could support either strategies of air-recirculation or allowing some fresh air intake while still keeping energy use low. As illustrated by Manitoba Hydro Place, these design elements can help provide pre-heating, humidification and circulation of fresh air intake. Additionally, the increased energy efficiency from cogeneration may justify slight incremental heating costs for additional fresh air warming, if necessary. Alternatively, if maximizing air-recirculation is the desired strategy, passive solar and greenhouse design elements could still aide in air treatment and circulation.