gardenlen wrote:
first up we as a society need to get a grasp that the homes we live in
are not suited to our climate, they ahve no endearing features that
make them work for us free of charge once built.

Hi Len,

passive solar design can go a long way towards alleviating the problem,
if you have the right climate. For instance in the sw of WA where my
father lives, summer days are stinking hot (over 40deg) but nights
are cool right through summer. A really good passive design would
incorporate thermal mass to smooth the temperature variations, but
even a tin shed will be comfortable at night in the summer because it
cools off quickly.

Here in Perth a good passive design will work for most of the year.
No design is going to be effective during a heatwave though - if the
overnight temperature is 30deg then no design is going to get the
temperature below 30deg. Depending on how you use the building
you might decide to just suffer through the 4 or 5 weeks of sleepless
nights. If I had to work from home though, that would mean 4 or
5 weeks of no income, since I can't work if it is hot. Maybe I should
just plan my vacation for this period and go somewhere cool :-)

Of course, it is no good talking about how good our houses would
be if they were completely different, we have to live with the houses
we have. Even if every builder were to start building fabulously
designed passive solar houses today that would have no effect on
the vast majority of us who don't get to live in new houses.