The best part about equipping your home with solar power is that all it takes is a few basic changes in your plans; it works with similar ease even when you are only remodeling the house. If electricity and gas become hard to manage you may want to consider heating your home using the sun’s heat. The key to designing a solar energy home is to devise a way to concentrate the solar radiations to your home in an efficient manner. We need a way so that the normally dispersed heat radiations are absorbed by your house in an efficient manner. It's easy to do and only a few modifications can go a long way in packing your house with that extra solar power.

I will list down few simple steps that you can take to solar-enable your house. The most important aspect is the location and orientation of the house. You need to plan the layout such that all the living areas are positioned to the south side of the house (north for people living in the southern hemisphere). This will ensure that you receive the maximum sunlight throughout the day.

Now you have your house placed in the perfect position to get the maximum out of the sun, but there is more to be done. You have to make sure that the roof, walls and floors are insulated so as to keep the heat inside the house. In the same vein you have to ensure proper ventilation through appropriate positioning of windows and doors so that the house can cool off on a hot summer evening.

Windows on the south side of the house should preferably be larger than those on the north side. This will allow more sun during the day and prevent heat loss at night. Another ingenious yet simple way is to plant deciduous trees, which shed leaves in winter, in front of your house. They would provide unobstructed sunlight during winters and would shade your house to some extent during the summer months.

Another important modification uses the earth’s geo-physical characteristics. External shading structures attached to the house should be wide enough to block out the summer sun. On the other hand, they should be positioned low enough to allow the winter sun to enter.  

Sunlight is an excellent replacement for conventional energy sources. Not only is it an economically more viable option but more importantly it is much more environment friendly; a cause for which we should all start contributing sincerely. There are also back-up heating sources available which can complement the sun’s heat during cloudy days. These back-up systems are nothing but apparatuses which store solar energy for relatively longer periods of time. Your back-up system can be used to assist the solar energy which will also cut down on the use of electricity or gas. Bottom-line is that we have depended on technology for our daily comforts for too long. It is time now to look up to our natural resources to provide all those luxuries and much more.