Passive Solar Heating of Buildings
This online engineering PDH video presentation covers the principles of passive solar heating, such as basic types of systems, their description, and the components making up any passive solar system. It identifies and discusses sources of data on heating requirements and available solar radiation at locations throughout the U.S. It presents a method for estimating performance of a passive system of specified size at a specified size at a specified location. It illustrates data retrieval and calculations through numerous examples.
Passive solar heating is an alternative source of energy mechanism that is becoming more and more desirable. Passive solar heating of a building is using the sun’s radiant energy and converting it to thermal energy (heat) when it is absorbed by the building. Some of the absorbed thermal energy will directly heat the building, and some will be stored in components of the building.
This 4 PDH online video presentation is intended primarily for chemical, environmental, mechanical, industrial, and energy engineers, and architects who are interested in learning more about passive solar heating.
This PE continuing education video presentation is intended to provide you with the following specific knowledge and skills:
- Learning about the six components that typically make up a passive solar heating system
- Learning about the five basic types of passive solar heating systems
- Understanding the differences between daytime and nighttime operation of direct gain passive solar heating systems
- Understanding the differences between daytime and nighttime operation of indirect gain passive solar heating systems
- Obtaining and interpreting data for solar radiation rate on vertical and horizontal surfaces of buildings at any of the 239 U.S. locations in the NREL database
- Obtaining and interpreting data for heating degree days at any of the 239 U.S. locations in the NREL database
- Estimating the rate of heat loss (Btu/oF/ft2) from a building if one year’s monthly power bills for the building are available
- Estimating the quantity of thermal storage needed for a passive solar heating system with specified area of glazing
- Estimating the monthly percentage of a building’s heating requirement that will be provided by given size passive solar heating system at a given location in the U.S. with specified rate of heat loss from the building (Btu/oF/ft2)
- Familiarizing with the NASA website to obtain average incident solar radiation for any location in the world based on the latitude and longitude of the site of interest
For this professional engineering CEU course, you will need to watch the video presentation titled, “Passive Solar Heating of Buildings”. To access the video presentation, you will need to log in or register and purchase the course. Following course purchase, please click on the link provided in your account history to view the video presentation. The duration of the video presentation is approximately 152 minutes.
Once you are finished watching the PDH video presentation, you will need to close or minimize the video portal to return to your account and click on “Take Quiz”. You will need to take a multiple-choice quiz consisting of twenty-five (25) questions to earn 4 PDH credits. The quiz will be based on this video presentation.
Upon successful completion of the quiz, print your Certificate of Completion instantly. (Note: if you are paying by check or money order, you will be able to print it after we receive your payment.) For your convenience, we will also email it to you. Please note that you can log in to your account at any time to access and print your Certificate of Completion.