# Has anyone retrofit their home to use passive solar for heating/cooling?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-retrofit-their-home-to-use-passive-solar-for-heating-cooling/691964>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [June 29, 2014, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-retrofit-their-home-to-use-passive-solar-for-heating-cooling/691964 "2014-06-29T22:10:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![EmAnJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d2c977/32.png) [@EmAnJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmAnJ)\
**Post date:** [June 29, 2014, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-retrofit-their-home-to-use-passive-solar-for-heating-cooling/691964/1 "2014-06-29T22:10:16Z")

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We live in Calgary and own a home built in the early 70’s. The back of our house is pretty much entirely south facing. We are just starting to kick off renovations and are interested in incorporating passive solar heating/cooling in to the design. Has anyone done this, and what was your experience and the result? Extra points if you’re in a northern climate. 🙂

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**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-retrofit-their-home-to-use-passive-solar-for-heating-cooling/691964/2 "2014-07-01T05:21:25Z")

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I’ve never done it, but I can tell you that the Bible for this is the [Passive Solar Energy Book](http://amzn.com/0878572376).  
(I was planning on building a passive-solar straw bale cabin, so I have all the books…)