Use Sun and Shadow in your Rural Building (I). Equinox and Solstice.

Are you HOT in summer on your FARM?

Is your  RURAL home COLD in winter?

Use SUN and SHADOWS for a natural temperature regulation.

Knowing the different paths of the sun during the year, you can naturally heat your rural building in winter and shade it in summer. How? In this post (I) I explain the solar paths and in next post (II) how to use the shadows properly.

Solar path at the equinox

The spring and fall equinoxes correspond to the days of the year when daylight hours are the same as the overnight hours. At the equinoxes, the sun’s altitude to the vertical at 12 o’clock noon coincides with the degrees of latitude anywhere in the world.

That is, at 12 am in a place of latitude 40 degrees south or north, the sun is at a height above the horizon from the vertical of 90 degrees minus the 40º latitude: 90 ° -40 ° = 50 ° on the ground.

More examples of the sun at high noon on the equinox at different latitudes:

* Latitude 20 º S:  90 º -20 º = 70 º angle of the sun on the ground.

* Latitude 0 º (equator): 90 º -0 º = 90 º In equator line, the sun is in full vertical in equinox at noon.

Solar path in winter and summer solstices

The winter solstice is the day of the year when the night is longer (22 December in the Northern hemisphere and June 22nd in the Southern hemisphere). The sun runs its lower course on the horizon, in particular lower than 23 º with respect to the equinox. Following the example of a place in latitude 40 ° we have seen that its height is 90-40 equinox = 50 ° on the ground. In the winter solstice, the sun’s altitude at 12 h will be 23 ° lower, ie 50 º -23 º = 27 º above the horizon.

The summer solstice is the day with more hours of sunshine during the day (22 June or 22 December). On this day the sun will be higher than 23 º at the equinoxes. Let us follow the example of latitude 40 degrees, with a height of 50 ° to the ground in equinox. In summer is 23 ° higher, ie 50 +23 = 73 degrees above the ground.

Examples:

* Latitude 20 º N:  Equinox: 90 º -20 º = 70 º.  Winter Solstice: 70 º -23 º = 57 º.  Summer Solstice: 70 º +23 º = 93 º.

* Latitude 65 ° S:  Equinox: 90 º -65 º = 25 º  Winter Solstice: 25 º -23 º = 2 º (almost no rising sun).   Summer Solstice: 25 º +23 º = 48 º above the ground.

Meet the sun’s path above YOUR rural building

You can practice for your sun paths with the latitude of where you are, either in northern or southern hemisphere:

Equinox: 90 ° – your latitude = height of the sun in spring and autumn equinox.

Winter Solstice: equinox sun Height – 23 ° = minimum height of the sun in winter.

Summer Solstice: Height sun equinox + 23 ° = maximum height in the summer sun.

With your information, you can shade your home properly only when it’s hot. We will see in the next post (II).

Do you understand the topic of solar paths? It is essential to shade properly. And is the basis for solar renewable energy. What do you think?

Related articles

• Winter Solstice (dansolar1.wordpress.com)
• Winter Solstice Brings Shortest Day of 2011 This Week (space.com)
• Why the Winter Solstice Arrives Thursday (livescience.com)
• Solstice