I am working on a corporate retreat center in Northern Nevada that is on a south facing hill. The entire south side of the house is a bank of windows and the original design of the house was passive solar. While the design worked well in the winter to reduce the heating requirements, in the summer, the house’s heating loads were extreme.

We replaced the windows with low-e windows to reduce the solar load, but needed a more aggressive solar blocking strategy in the summer. Putting on an awning to reduce the solar load in the summer was mandatory to make the space habitable without excessive air conditioning. I saw a solar awning design several months ago so had the designer draft a concept of putting solar panel awnings over the south facing windows.

What I like about this design is how she has applied the sun angles for this specific location. In the winter the sun still gets in and in the summer, the awnings prevent exposure AND collect the solar energy. This is a triple whammy - passive heat gain in the winter, shading and energy creation year round.

Solar Awning Design for South Facing Windows