This will be an on-going posting about lessons learned from over 30 years of living by the sun. We all live with the sun - more than we know. Everything we use and are, originated from the sun - our star. Ultimately we are all from the same star dust.
Each day that I have lived at WinSol3 has provided me with new teachings about how to live more closely with our star. And that has made all the difference.
For instance, in the last couple days, I've noticed that the crazy weather and solar angles are getting weirder all the time. if I had to design this structure today, I'd do it a lot differently. The fall and spring are no longer the transition zones between winter and summer, but contain within themselves elements of winter and summer. So I would design some slidable louvers or large exterior panels to accommodate the cold days of late spring and summer or the warm days of late autumn or winter.
We are getting warmer mornings in the summer and weird weather patterns that I believe are being kicked up here by some of the hurricanes off Mexico's waters. The last couple days, WinSol3 could have really used some strong sun through the windows... but usually this time of year it's very warm: Sacramento's music festival usually has 100F temps ... so WinSol3's structure passively allows not ONE single ray of sunlight inside from Spring to Fall solstice... the sawtooth western roof allows for a little late afternoon sun in the fall, but that's about it.
