Description

This publication has been prepared to act as a prototype handbook for the passive solar heating and natural cooling design of buildings. For reasons of simplicity and availability of resources, Australia has been chosen as the location for the prototype as information relevant to three distinct climatic regions, namely cool-temperate, hot-arid, and warm-humid could be presented.

Whilst the social and cultural environment in Australia is different from that in most developing countries, it was felt that for a prototype document the other factors in the thermal design process, especially available climatic data, outweigh this difficulty. Nevertheless, as a prototype this document will be relevant to many countries, especially those of the Asian and Pacific Basin and of parts of Africa. It is, therefore, hoped that United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitant) This handbook will prove useful to designers in Australia, and in other countries, both developed and developing.