Passive solar design is well understood yet little considered at the community design level. New York City planners had the foresight to lay out the NYC street grid with solar aspect in mind. For community planners, considering solar path is so simple yet largely ignored. Imagine laying out streets and houses around the sun so that rooms enjoy daylight without solar heat gain, where front and rear yards are oriented on the north-south axis and sideyards to east and west. Thus floor plans can more easily be adapted to locate the service spaces to the north (kitchen, closets, baths) and living spaces (living, dining, bedrooms) to the south. This simple idea can have a profound effect on the long-term energy use of the individual homes and of the neighborhood collectively and with little or no cost, has big marketing potential. Community developers and planners should wake up to the logic of this win-win solution.
