Thermal Mass Flooring For Passive Solar Shed

I was planning on an engineered wood floor but my builder pointed out that this would prevent the sun from heating the slab.

Thermal mass flooring for passive solar shed. Dry stack surface bonding cement construction photos and some block layout sketches. Slab on ground with masonry walls or earth bermed. Greater quantities of both thermal mass and passive heating and cooling are required to moderate temperature cycles up to one week e g. Objects that have thermal mass have inherent qualities for both heating and cooling.

Thermal mass is another vital and complimentary component of passive solar design. Photo gallery is packed with images commentary and our free htm home tour video. Htm passive solar ebook table of contents. Thermal mass is a property that enables building materials to absorb store and later release significant amounts of heat.

Introduction to high thermal mass pragmatic design low tech functions and materials. In simple terms a passive solar home collects heat as the sun shines through south facing windows and retains it in materials that store heat known as thermal mass. A solar passive shed house in the country. He suggests a stained concrete floor or tile.

Earth covered buildings can even out summer winter ranges if well designed. The sketch below shows the effect of high thermal mass on a building. A material that has thermal mass is one that has the capacity to absorb store and release the sun s heat energy its density and levels of conductivity help to keep the internal temperature of a building stable. Flooring materials for passive solar floor slab designs where direct solar gain and passive solar heat storage are desired.

My question is about flooring. The share of the home s heating load that the passive solar design can meet is called the passive solar fraction and depends on the area of glazing and the amount of thermal mass. Floor plans features several functional basic layouts and commentary on design choices. This is very important in a passive house in terms of heat control from solar gain as it moderates temperature fluctuations.

I am building a home that will use a combination of a mini split and passive solar in the pacific northwest. For thermal mass it has a concrete slab floor with insulation underneath. Very high levels of thermal mass e g. Thickness concrete slab floors should be 100 200mm thick for the best performance while thermal mass walls should be 100 150mm thick.

Flooring choices for use over concrete slabs using thermal mass what finish flooring materials are best to use over a concrete floor slab to retain the thermal mass properties of the slab. Internally the concrete slab and brick walls provide thermal mass to stabilise temperatures all year round and the long roof extends out over the car port at the west side of the house providing additional shading from the hot afternoon sun in the summer.